Another Earth to call my own
by aendowyn
Summary: [On Hiatus] When Kara first meets Barry, she fall for him head over heels, but there is a problem, the man she wants is on track to be married. Can she get over him? Or maybe some other surprise lingers around the corner
1. Hope

AN : Welcome Everyone. This story is a spin off of my main fic Bound By Love ( which can be found here s/12886606/1/Bound-By-Love )

I strongly recommend to read the main story at least until chapter 46, or else the events in this one will make little to no sense. I will try to make it as standalone as possible, but there are some things which pertain to the universe in which both fics are situated, that only happen once and explained about the same.

Besides that, i hope you have a good time reading it as much as i have writing it.

PS : As always i do not own any DC characters, the story however is something of my own design. Happy reading.

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Flying with Kara through the sky, Barry realized that this Earth would be his home from now on, leaving behind the one that he created in the hopes that he will once again meet the woman he loves, but he had literally nothing. His face kind of drooped a bit, his look being picked up by her

 **"What's wrong? You seem a bit sad. A bit of a contrasting look from when we met"** she asked him

 **"I just realized that I don't have anything in this universe. No job, no money, no place to stay, no clothes and, the worst of all, no food. I should have at least asked those two for something that I can trade for some currency, but I was way too out of it and happy to come here to actually think"** He answered surprising her completely.

 **"It's fine. I can have Winn hack you some CSI credentials to work at the NCPD, you can stay at my place, with your super healing even if the couch is not that good, at least it's not the underside of National City Bridge, as for clothes and food … I can help you with that. I have more than enough money"** Kara explained to the speedster.

 **"Well then, color me corrected. I guess I do have everything I need then"** Barry smiled back at Kara with one of his goofy grins. She could see the Barry before her was different, he was still the same old speedster, even if a bit older, but the eyes, those were not the same.

 **"Did you seriously forget I'm here? So all you need is money, a place to stay and food"** she pouted and gave him a puppy dog eyes look.

 **"Oh, but I didn't. I did say I don't have anything. You are not a thing. Of course that's what I need, Kara. That's what all of us need, at least from a physical stand point. From a mental one … well that's something entirely different"** Barry smiled making her realize that he was referring to material things, not persons. They flew back to her apartment and Barry sat on the sofa.

 **"Stay here. I'm going to get you some clothes and something to chow on"** she smiled as she prepared to speed away Barry stopped her.

 **"Hey, how about you just give me some money and point me in the right direction to get clothes and I'll run to your favorite donut shop and grab us some donuts as well. You have been flying back here with me and even with how strong I know you are, I'm pretty sure you`re famished"** He smiled back knowing that it would only take him a minute at the most to be back

 **"All right. I know you`re fast. You can go then. The clothes shop and food is that away"** she handed him her wallet and pointed him into the direction of the city's commercial district. In less than a minute he was back. She had changed from her Supergirl outfit to a normal pair of blue faded jeans and a white turtleneck, dawning her usual glasses. He got for himself a Supergirl T shirt and a pair of shorts for the house and black denim jeans, a white shirt and a blazer for outside.

 **"Aw man, no Flash T-Shirts on this earth? That kind of sucks. Although to be fair I don't mind wearing the coat of arms which belongs to house of El"** He quipped putting 8 boxes of donuts on the counter in her apartment and took a seat on the couch

 **"You said you were another Barry. So … how do you know about the house of El? I don't remember mentioning anything of the sort to the other one. While he did know who my mother was, my house remained obscured to him in his flashes"** she asked.

 **"You told me. In my own timeline. It happened there too. I jumped by accident to this earth, but I was alone. Caitlin did not receive any sort of powers. I helped you put away Silver Banshee and Livewire and while my tachyon device recharged … we spend a few days together, in which we exchanged some stories, I told you how I became the flash, the particle accelerator explosion and the likes and you told me the complete story about how you came to earth, who your mother was, who your father was and so on"** He explained

 **"This is a bit confusing even for a naturally intelligent Kryptonian. I need to get used to this multiple timeline, what happened and what didn't, thing. I suspect as you continue to tell me what has happened this confusion will appear quite often if I don't clear it up now"** Kara answered sitting next to him on the couch and putting 2 boxes of donuts in front of them.

 **"Before … what happened, my timeline was a bit different from the one that is now. Caitlin didn't have powers, as I have stated earlier. I was the only one that the lightning struck and that had been in a coma for 9 months. Following that time, I became The Flash"** he continued

 **"Oh, so you were alone. The accidental breach happened here too, but it was him and Caitlin this time. They both had speed powers and she had ice powers as well. Those were really cool"** she smiled stuffing a donut in her mouth.

 **"That was … because of me"** He sighed **"I came back in time after everything that happened, almost six months before, manipulated some events to get Caitlin in the lab the night the lightning struck and then pushed her into it along with Barry. That way, I knew she could get powers and maybe this version of Caitlin would have had a better life than mine"** he said sighing yet again.

 **"Things must have been really bad to force you to come back and make a judgement call, weren't they? I mean you didn't know what would happen, they might have both died, right?"** she asked him seeing the shadow in his eyes

 **"I think calling the things that happened to me really bad is … well a gross understatement. As I know time travel is not an exact science. She could have never chosen to go to Barry before the lightning. He could have chosen to go to her which means they both would have never gotten powers and maybe their life would have been completely normal or maybe instead the Reverse Flash would have killed them both, because he could have not returned home without the Flash's help. Possibilities are endless. When I came back, I hoped that I would disappear. Just like any other remnant of a timeline that had been erased from existence. After a while of being alone, the hope turned to desire, I wanted to disappear. Cait was dead and the only other person I loved sent me back to try to fix everything that had happened, knowing full well that she will never see me again if I succeed"** he said that with a tear in his eye. His eyes were again cloudy and dark, something akin to a storm was brewing in them, like something was about to come out at any time.

 **"All I can say right now is that I am very thankful to Rao that you didn't disappear, you`re here. With me"** she smiled.

" **Back then I did wish I had disappeared. Not anymore. I'm actually thankful for being here right now, to whoever is up there watching and to those two that thought it would be a good idea to send me to your world"** he gave her a grin and she could see hope in his eyes. Hope that had appeared taking place of the storm that was there before and it happened after she smiled at him **"It's going to be really interesting when Alex comes home. She has met the other me and knows he has a girlfriend, well now he has a wife, but you get the point. Seeing me here might become… really awkward"**

 **"Oh. Damn. I forgot about that. I'm pretty sure that she would not be happy about the whole thing, since probably the first thought that would be in her head is that you somehow ran away from your wife to be with me. That is going to be … bad. How fast can you run?"** she cracked one of her beautiful smiles

 **"Mach 102, give or take, if I don't push myself. Fastest I've run was that time when I managed to circle the globe in 5 minutes and change. That would make it about Mach 500 or somewhere around that. I think I'll be safe. There hasn't been any human on any earth that has managed to even see me clearly when I push myself to go to that speed"** Kara's face dropped instantly at the answer he gave her.

 **"Excuse me, how much? The Barry I knew could run pretty fast, but nowhere nearly as fast as you"** she said with her eyes still wide

 **"Of course he didn't. He's still young. I had pain, hatred, love and conviction to help me run faster. With the speed I have and by using it in various creative ways, I have learned a lot of new tricks over the years. Like this for example"** he vibrated his hand and with a few swift motions all the donuts were cut in quarters **"You know it's not befitting of a beautiful young lady to stuff her face with donuts, right?"** he grinned

 **"Shut up!"** she feigned indignation, but her voice showed him it was anything but. Her face also showed him that she enjoyed being called a beautiful lady **"That was amazing. How did you do it?"**

 **"I had a lot of time to study. Here's a fun fact that only a few people know besides myself. My mind moves faster than my legs or my body. Back when my back was broken, for two months all I did was read. When you can read Harry Potter in 10 seconds flat and be able to remember every page with photographic accuracy, you can imagine the sheer volume of information I needed to read to keep myself busy. Thank god most books are digital today, I don't think STAR Labs would have enough storage space to keep the library that I read during the time I was paralyzed from the waist down"** he replied taking another piece of donut and eating it. Kara was genuinely impressed.

 **"So, what did you study?"** she asked

 **"First, hacking since I couldn't move but I was surrounded by computers. It took me a while, but I made my enemy's life quite hard. I can probably overtake Winn now in hacking skills, simply because I can think and react faster. At normal speeds I still think he is better, but without being able to compare I cannot be sure that statement is correct"** the Flash responded.

 **"I don't believe you. Winn is the best hacker this side of the planet. I would have to see it to believe it"** Kara was simply baffled.

 **"Want to take a trip with me to the Supergirl Cave so I can show you?"** he then realized what he said **"That somehow sounded completely wrong and nowhere near what I wanted to say"** Kara looked at his face and started to laugh.

 **"Why Flash, some other woman might think that you were trying to get into her pants with that line"** She looked at him and smirked barely holding back a laugh **"As long as you never call it that again, sure, I'll go with you. Who actually named it that and didn't have the foresight to realize how it sounds?"** she asked between laughs.

 **"Actually, I'm pretty sure you will be surprised about the actual person since we're talking about Winn. He named it that. Don't completely blame him for it though, apparently none of us said anything about how weird it sounded, including that future version of you"** Barry said with a grin.

 **"I'll make sure he doesn't get the chance to do so. If I hear that name I'm going to veto it to Rao and back, because you are right, it does sound pretty wrong from where I'm standing. Shall we go then?"** Kara stood up ready to change.

 **"I can carry you if you want. At the rate of speed I run we'll be there in less than a second. Unless the location has changed. Still 23rd floor?"** she nodded, but stopped him

 **"You know what happened last time you ran me anywhere. My clothes went up in smoke. I would not really want to buy another few sets of clothes because someone runs fast enough to burn mine off"** she remembered that and thanked her lucky stars that she had her Supergirl costume on underneath.

 **"That won't happen anymore, or to be more accurate it hasn't happened to me in a very long time. I have learned to control the Speed Force in my system. I can make the bubble around me larger to protect anyone I am carrying or holding so they don't have … mishaps anymore, besides don't you have the suit underneath anymore? It's not like you would turn out naked if the clothes burn"** He cleared up the misunderstanding.

 **"No. I don't. Barry and Caitlin made me a new suit that goes into the pendant I have around my neck. So if my clothes burn then I would probably more than likely turn up naked. Which is why I asked. Ok, let's go then"** Barry took her in his arms and flashed to the CatCo building, where her out of the DEO control center was. Kara even with her superior vision could not keep up with how fast Barry was moving. She blinked to clear her eyes and they were already there.

 **"Wow, you really are fast, my enhanced vision could not even keep up with the rate of speed that you were putting out. The world seemed like a blur around me, for all of one second as I managed to process that we were actually moving"** Kara commented as Barry sat down at one of the computers. She looked over at his hands, they were moving very fast but he had to slow down because the computer was reacting way slower than he was moving. The keyboard buffers and the processing power was something that put a complete dent in his speed and put a bit of an annoyed look on his face.

 **"Ok, this place really needs an upgrade. I'll do that later, sorry but at least at STAR I had computers that could keep up with me, these ones can't. I actually need to slow down so they process what I'm doing"** he smiled sheepishly

 **"So, now you`re a tech wiz too?"** Kara asked dumbfounded

 **"In order to learn hacking I needed computers that were at least fast enough to keep up with my commands when I used them. So … I had to become a techie by default, or else I would be stuck waiting for the terminals to catch up with me which would more than likely render my speed practically useless. I can tell you this, it was not easy, I knew how to use computers and maybe code a bit before everything happened, but never actually cared enough to supe up my workstations for any reason"** Barry told the blonde while continuing to write on the keyboard in front of him at a lower rate of speed **"There we go"**

 **"What? Are you done already?"** she asked.

 **"Yep, I hacked into Coast City PD and inserted my name on a few cases as main CSI, then created myself credentials. All I need to do is put in the order for my transfer to the NCPD, which can be done almost instantly"** he pointed to the screen.

 **"Whoa"** Kara was impressed. She had seen Winn hack multiple times into all sorts of databases, human or alien and even he didn't move this fast **"Awesome. If I could afford to pay you, I'd have you help me with the superhero business. The DEO doesn't really care much about the common person here, only about aliens. Which is why I needed this control center in the first place. While I like keeping the aliens off the streets, it's annoying that the DEO doesn't care about the average citizen"** Kara blurted out.

 **"Pay me? I'm living in your apartment, sleeping on your couch, you pay for my clothes and food. Are you kidding me, Kara? I will more than likely have a computer at work and I will write my own software to keep an eye on stuff in the city. It's not hard to send you a ping every time I find something. Of course I'll do that for you, tech wise and out there as well"** Barry explained **"Besides"** the speedster moved closer to her, whispering in her ear **"I did say I was going to help, did I not? Or maybe you thought that I was just going to watch you do things while I get the tech job? No chance, Girl of Steel, not a snowball's chance in hell"** his breath on her ear was triggering some very interesting reactions from her which she didn't want to reveal so she stepped back

 **"Yes, you did say you would help and no I wouldn't even dream of getting you stuck as my tech person, it would be wonderful to not go out there alone. Thank you, Barry. Can we go back now ? Or ... I don't know, maybe not at home, but somewhere else ?"** Kara smiled **"I spend way too much time here during the week to want to be here on my days off"**

 **"Up for some basking in the sun then, food isn't the only thing you need to recharge"** he grinned at her knowing that she needed some solar energy as well

 **"That would be nice"** the blonde quipped **"So where are we going?"**

 **"I don't know yet. I'm not sure the National City in my own timeline was the same so give me a few minutes, I need to get the lay of the land first. I'll be right back"** She saw a flash of lightning leave the building and then come back a few minutes later **"I got the perfect place. Hang on"** He took her in his arms and ran straight down the side of the building to the outskirts of National City, on a hill that was overlooking it. There was already a checkered blanket on the ground under a solitary tree, which was where he stopped **"This should do wonderfully"** Kara looked around not recognizing the place, but it was indeed beautiful.

 **"How much of National City did you see in these 3 minutes?"** she smiled

 **"None of it, I wanted to take out of the city so I went about 20 miles in every direction around it to find a nice spot. I can always learn the layout of the town while I help you and my reading speed and memory will help me with that just fine"** the speedster replied

 **"So tell me, who broke your back?"** The blonde woman stood up looking at him

 **"Straight to the questioning, huh? Nothing really changes, does it"** Barry looked at her and sighed heavily. She could see that the dark shadow that he had returned.

 **"Just curious. I didn't think there was someone fast enough to actually catch you to break your back, unless it was another speedster. It wasn't another speedster, right?"** She reasoned letting him understand that she knew the extent of his powers.

 **"No, it wasn't. The person that broke my back was Caitlin Snow"** he sighed like he had a 100 ton weight on his chest. Kara did not expect that at all, the moment he said her name, her face fell **"Or better said … her alter ego, Killer Frost. You see, her powers always had a mind of their own. But if left unchecked they would take her over. Caitlin has always had the problem of keeping her feelings in, being strong for the sake of being strong and sometimes keeping things to herself just so that others don't suffer. Those feelings kept fueling her alter ego until it came to the surface ... permanently. In my timeline, Killer Frost put a sharp ice core through my spine in one of our battles, enough to leave me immobile. I always wondered why she didn't kill me, I was at her mercy, but she just left me there not being able to move and bleeding, kind of like she wanted me to die slowly and suffer at the same time"** Barry told her with a sad face. Kara knew she was pushing too much. He had just got here and she was so happy about that, but her inquisitive nature almost pushed her to ask questions that were visibly uncomfortable for the speedster. She decided to let it go, they would need to spend more time together for him to be able to open up about his haunting past.

 **"That's fine, we can talk about that some other time. What else did you study, old man?"** she smiled and hit his arm, she was so happy that she forgot to control her strength but when she hit him, nothing happened. When she raised her arm she saw that his was vibrating so fast it was almost hard for her to see. **"Oh, Rao. I'm sorry. Did I hurt you?"**

 **"No, I'm fine. I didn't know if you would hit me with all your strength or just in play, but you are super strong, so I vibrated my hand to increase my muscle and bone density. Yet another one of the many tricks I have in store for you, Kara Zor – El"** he grinned and pinched her nose **"Never call me old man again, super toddler"** he laughed.

 **"Well, Barry Allen, you`re a regular Interdimensional Man of Mystery aren't you?"** she chuckled

 **"Wait, are you calling me James Bond behind my back?"** he replied with a face that feigned seriousness, but he couldn't control himself and a grin appeared.

 **"No, I'm calling you that to your face, only … older"** she teased him only to be hit in the face with a snowball. She barely noticed him leaving and coming back, the only telltale sign that was the case was the gust of wind that hit her before the snowball **"Where did you get snow from this time of year?"**

 **"The north pole? It's not really far away you know, at least not for me"** he replied nonchalantly with a grin on his face.

 **"You are full of surprises, Barry Allen. I can't wait to see what else you have in store for me"** Her phone rang and she answered as the two looked over the city. Winn was at the other end of the line.

 **"Kara, there has been an explosion in a high rise downtown. Turn to channel 31"** he said with a sense of urgency

 **"I am not at home, Winn, just tell me where I need to go"** Supergirl responded

"C **orner of 34th and Western. Hurry"** and he closed the line

 **"After you"** Barry grinned at Kara already dressed in his Flash suit

 **"How gentlemanly of you, Flash"** she grinned back

Kara took off with Barry right under her, following her toward where the explosion had occurred. The building was barely standing, it was a 40 story tall skyscraper full of people and the explosion damaged the first 3 floors. Fire was breaking out everywhere and the support structure of the building, while damaged was still holding, for now.

 **"I'm going to start getting people out of there"** he spoke only for her to hear

 **"While you do that, I'm going to try to put out the flames and keep the building from collapsing in on itself"** she replied and he started to move and people kept appearing a few hundred meters away every few seconds. Kara immediately thought to cool off the fire with her breath, however, something she didn't count on was the fact that steel was not really built to withstand the immense temperature differential that she had inflicted on it. The beams started to buckle and small fissures appeared in the support structure.

She noticed her mistake, but Flash was still getting people out so she flew to where the support struts were cracking and started to push up, holding up the building as best as she could. It was heavy even for her and holding it without moving so that it wouldn't crumble it was more of a challenge. She saw the support columns crack and more and more weight came crashing down on her but she managed to keep it up another 3 minutes until all the people were out. The Flash was right next to her.

 **"Everyone is out. What can I do to help?"** he asked

 **"I'm going to try to fix the beams with my heat vision. Give me a moment"** She tried to melt the beams while holding up the building, but her strength was waning. There was something around that was weakening her. A piece of her outfit turned into a display on her arm and started to flash red. The same piece of fabric on his suit did the exact same thing, prompting Kara to throw him a weird look **"Flash, I'm almost out of power, there has to be Kryptonite somewhere around here"** He left and in a few seconds he saw a piece of green rock fly away, but it was too late **"Thank you for finding it so fast, but I can't hold the building for long in this weakened state and I don't have the power to use my heat vision to melt the support struts"** she told him

 **"I see, that's what the bar over here means. So… power is all you need?"** he asked **"I can help with that"** she saw him starting to move fast in front of the building as he vibrated. In a few seconds he stopped and his hands were vibrating so fast that they were crackling lightning. Before she could realize what was going on he threw the two lightning bolts at her. She didn't dodge, she trusted Barry with her life. She was right to do so, when the two bolts hit her, she felt supercharged. The display on her arm immediately turned to green and disappeared. She stood straight, raising the building above her that had started to buckle. Blue beams came out of her eyes hitting the support struts, sealing the cracks and stabilizing the building. She then flew down to him while the crowd cheered.

 **"How did you do that?"** she asked with a concerned look on her face **"I was sure that those lightning bolts would help I just didn't know how"**

 **"I can explain, just … not in the middle of all these people, some things are better left private. Shall we take our leave and return to our tree?"** the speedster smiled at the blonde in front of him

 **"Yea, you`re right. We should go back"** She took off for the sky while Barry ran like a bat out of hell toward the checkered blanket they left behind which had her clothes on it and her phone. They changed and sat down. **"So? How did you do that?"** she asked.

 **"I have had a lot of time to practice honing my lightning into different forms of energy. If you can find the best frequency, the power you can receive from a lightning bolt can be … anything from a nuclear radiation blast to"** he let her finish

 **"Solar energy. You converted the lightning's electrical energy into power that was compatible with my cells. But ... how? You would have to know my exact genetic structure and cell frequency to be able to pull something like that"** she looked in awe at the speedster that sat beside her.

 **"Things I already know and have known for quite a while"** he smiled **"This is not the first time I have tried this trick on a certain super powered Kryptonian with blonde hair"** as he said that, her face dropped.

 **"But how, you already said you knew me in your timeline, but this is pretty advanced knowledge for you to have"** Supergirl told him trying to recover from her surprised state.

 **"Because you told them to me. Since nothing has changed on this earth, it still vibrates at the same frequency, you are the same you only a few years younger … which means that was going to work since I have tried it multiple times before"** the speedster chuckled.

 **"We were close, weren't we"** she asked bluntly

 **"You could say that, yes. You came and helped us quite a few times in my timeline"** He replied, but keeping the fact that she was the one he loved after Caitlin and that she sent him back.

 **"You aren't telling me everything, are you?"** Kara looked at him

 **"You could always tell that"** Barry sighed **"No. I'm not telling you everything. Let it be a story for another time, this is not something I want to end this beautiful day with"** his voice was normal but his eyes were almost begging her to let it go.

 **"Another time then. Thank you for being there to help"** she gave him one of her beautiful smiles.

 **"Anytime, Girl of Steel. Anytime"** he replied with a large smile.

The day was coming to a close, the sunset in the background only completed Kara's beauty, Barry looked at her and remembered from his own time how much she loved spending days outside with her when they weren't fighting super villains. In a few moments they were back in the apartment. The story that was on TV was about them, which was not that surprising. How the Blur had helped Supergirl by hitting her with lightning.

 **"Oh boy. This is going to be on page 1 of all the papers tomorrow"** Kara said smacking her forehead.

 **"You are ashamed to be seen with me? Aww, I thought I stopped looking so nerdy all the time"** Barry smirked **"Oh wait, they can't really see me because I move so fast"**

 **"No. Why would I …"** she realized that he's messing with her and threw a pillow directly at him **"Definitely not, but I bet my glasses that when I go to work Monday, Ms. Grant will want an interview with the Blur. We never got around to that, but it wasn't a problem since the other Barry didn't come here that often. But now you`re here to stay so …"** she trailed off.

 **"You`re afraid that she will want to meet the Blur. Didn't she peg Barry Allen as being the Flash in this timeline back when he was here?"** he asked.

 **"Well, we did have a bit of mishap where Barry was everyone's cousin and Cat was a bit suspicious, she did mention about the Blurs a couple of times and she knew it was about two people, but I don't know if that was enough"** Kara replied. **"Why?"**

 **"In my timeline she definitely knew something was going on, as soon as I appeared that Kara started getting hints and weird questions about her new boyfriend and partner, I would rather this doesn't happen here. It might be easier to throw her off the track immediately than anything else. Also, that time I was alone, if the two got here together, that might be our saving grace"** the speedster thought out loud

 **"I didn't get much of a vibe off her, but by the way she talked about the two speedsters that appeared, I think she might have thought about it, but as much as I know the woman, I don't know what's going on in her head. What do you think about it?"** Kara's voice trailed off

 **"Then let's nip this in the bud. I can be in two places at once. That should get her off my back in case she suspects anything. To be honest, if I do indeed come over to your workplace, Supergirl getting a partner and you getting a "visitor" shall we say, could be indeed suspicious. Let's be frank here, Cat is anything but stupid"** Barry chuckled, remembering the way Zoom used to make time remnants which was a skill he had learn to use in order to battle him.

 **"That is indeed correct. She is a very smart woman. All right, tell me about that whole be in two places at once then. How can you do that? Or is it something that you speedsters can normally do?"** she asked with a surprised look on her face.

 **"It's one of the many tricks I have yet to show you, Girl of Steel"** Barry gave her one of his goofy smiles which gave her butterflies in her stomach **"What's been happening here though. We talked all day about me and my future which doesn't exist anymore, but nothing about you"**

 **"Didn't you say you come from the future? You should already know what has happened here"** Kara smiled at the speedster

 **"Things might not have happened exactly like I know them. Besides, I wanted to know more about your own adventures"** He replied

 **"After Barry and Caitlin came here the first time by accident and helped me put away Livewire and Banshee, Cisco managed to make me a breach generator so I could cross between worlds. After that, they showed up out of nowhere after my uncle Non tried to kill every human on the planet. Because of them my suicide mission turned into a win. I went and helped them with a problem they had. Arrow had a villain by the name of Damien Darhk, so while planning for their problem, which was another speedster by the name of Zoom, we managed to help Ollie with his issue as well. Aunt Astra decided she would be better off here on earth. She deserted and is now working for the DEO, in another city which houses the so called Alien Naturalization Center"** She summarized the events as best she could, without leaving out more important details.

 **"Hmm. I didn't know that my meddling in time might have repercussions here. In my timeline, Alex had to kill Astra because she was even worse than Non. Zoom huh? That guy appears everywhere, I thought that he wouldn't have a chance to turn up in the modified timeline, but I guess you just can't get rid of scum"** the speedster face palmed.

 **"Ok, that's ... different. I don't think I could have imagined Astra being worse than Non. Yes, Zoom. That was his name. But how would time ripples affect another universe?"** she asked. She knew the theories, but since there was no practical application that she could use for an example she was pretty stunned at what Barry was telling her.

 **"No idea, might be something related to increased entropy? Or some causality paradox that I created in the future that would have changed the past, or anything else from a multitude of choices, which reminds me … how are things between you and James these days?"** Barry asked quite bluntly. It was clear what would be going on between them if she was still with him

 **"Why do you ask?"** she tried to back out of responding to the that question, something that Barry picked up on quite fast

 **"Because I remember from my timeline that I actually encouraged you to take the leap with him. Fact that I regretted from the bottom of my heart later on"** the speedster told her bluntly

 **"We tried to be together, it didn't work. He still had feelings for Lucy, which only made me angrier. In the end it probably wouldn't have worked out anyway. I see my Supergirl business and my private life separate. Almost like two different lives. He knew them both and thought that sometimes because he did we were actually way closer than we actually were. That spiraled into something that neither of us wanted"** Kara went to the fridge only to realize she was out of food. " **Darn"** she admonished herself not only for not having her favorite food, but her stash of regular food was gone as well. She had forgotten that Barry was eating as well and didn't restock.

 **"You`re hungry, aren't you?"** Barry smiled as she nodded. **"Give me a couple of minutes"** He told her as he sped out the window and disappearing into the distance, while at the edge of the city, Kara heard a sonic boom from the distance almost like thunder.

 **"This is so weird. I know he's Barry, but he's not. I guess back when Caitlin told me to get my own, she wasn't kidding. Now I have one and I'm totally at a loss about what to do. Keep it together, Kara. Now he knows you`re single and that you don't have anyone. Just don't screw up and everything should be just fine"** Kara thought to herself. Her train of thought was broken when a flash of lightning skidded to a stop in the middle of her living room. She knew that smell anywhere.

 **"Barry, you remembered!"** she smiled brightly at him

 **"Yeah, you'd never let me forget pot stickers. Not in ANY timeline"** He laughed and put the boxes on the table seeing Kara attacking them.

 **"Here's something interesting, these don't really taste like anything I've had from National City before. They are amazing! Where did you get them, I need the name of that locale, mister"** Kara was talking between taking bites.

 **"The only place I ever went to get Kara pot stickers, after I could run as fast as I can. Since I always want to train, but I never wanted to lose another moment with her, I trained while running to get her food. I went to Wuxi"** He smiled watching her eat with a face that exhibited pure bliss.

 **"Where's that? Doesn't seem like a place I've heard about in National City"** Kara continued to stuff dumplings in her mouth. She had seen Barry eat and she knew that if she binge ate with him around he wouldn't give her any sort of problems.

 **"It's not in National City, Kara. It's not even in this country, or on this continent actually. Wuxi is a city … in China"** he answered her question. Her face dropped looking at his grin.

 **"Wait, you went to China and back in the span of 5 minutes? Just to get me pot stickers?"** she looked at him with a flirty smile

 **"Yes. I did. That's why I asked for a few minutes, not the usual 10 seconds it takes me to get down the building and buy 30 pizzas"** He smiled.

 **"Well color me impressed then. Oh, I kind of ate everything"** Kara looked at the empty containers in front of her.

 **"It's fine. I had 10 pizzas on the way here. Running on water is not as easy as you`d think"** he replied smirking **"Besides, in any universe or timeline, nothing can stand between Kara Danvers and her pot stickers. I learned that a long time ago, the hard way, even though it was still funny"** he started to rub his arm. She x rayed it and saw a particularly large break that had healed pretty well.

 **"I'm guessing I gave you that break?"** she smiled. She felt comfortable about the life that she didn't know. The one that Barry Allen had lived in the future, even though asking about herself in a timeline that was gone was pointless, she still enjoyed the foresight of things that might have been, which she hoped somewhere in the back of her mind that might still come to pass in this time.

 **"Yes. Well not you, but you get it. The first time I did that after I managed to improve my speed, when I came back I brought 20 boxes and I tried to have one. You hit me, it was an innocent gesture, but with all your power and… that happened"** he rubbed his arm again.

 **"Wow, ok. I'm glad I asked. I guess you already know everyone around here, don't you ?"** Kara asked.

 **"I guess. You don't need to introduce them to me. If I find someone that I don't know, I'll just ask you in private. Most of the people should be the same I think"** he replied

 **"Why did you ask me about James?"** she asked.

 **"The Kara Danvers I knew used to be engaged to James Olsen for a time. But it turned out sour, which is why I said I regretted the fact that I was the one to take that risk"** Barry answered absentmindedly

 **"Turned sour? You mean we split up?"** Kara was surprised

 **"Yeah. That James thought Lucy would be a good girl on the side. He didn't get enough of Supergirl or Kara, because he couldn't come with you while you were saving the city and you were doing that quite a lot. So … yeah that didn't really end up well, for either of you"** the answer came

 **"I didn't kill anyone, right?"** Kara asked with a shocked face. She knew herself pretty well and she couldn't take that sort of treatment from anyone

 **"Oh, no. no. How could sweet Kara Danvers kill her friends? You just slapped James hard enough for him to spend the next 4 months eating through a straw. As you put it, "I wasn't too bothered to control my strength when I slapped him", or something like that"** Barry chuckled.

 **"I had no idea that James could be such an ass"** she replied

" **This is the thing about timelines and alternate futures and alternate universes, Kara. Everything that can happen, already happened. In some universe James can be your husband and you can have two kids with him. In another you left him for someone else, while in some other one, you two don't even meet. Every universe is different. Trust me, better not think too much about it. Your head will hurt, badly. I know I keep drawing parallels to my own timeline, but keep in mind, it is gone"** the speedster answered and started to yawn. Kara looked at the clock and was surprised. It was nearly midnight, the time they spent with one another passed by way too fast.

 **"Let's get some rest, Barry. Tomorrow is Sunday and we can spend some more time together before we have to go to work on Monday"** Kara smiled getting up and going toward her bedroom.

 **"Good night, Kara. Thank you for the humbling couch"** he got some blankets and put them on and drifted to sleep. Kara on the other hand was trying to not think about all the different universes and failing badly, only the person she was thinking about wasn't James, it was him. She fell asleep a while later, when she realized that **"what ifs"** were not something you should be considering at 2 AM in the morning.

She woke up to the smell of coffee and food. She panicked for a moment till she realized that she was not alone in the house. She had invited Barry Allen to live there with her, ever since he showed up. She slowly got up from the bed and went toward the kitchen only to stop in the doorway at the sight of a shirtless speedster cooking breakfast. He was singing something she couldn't make up at the time, but his voice sounded wonderful. She spent a few minutes taking in the view before she decided to actually enter.

 **"Good morning, scarlet speedster or should I say, shirtless speedster?"** She greeted prompting Barry to turn around and see his jaw fall. She had no idea why he would be so surprised at how she looked. Her hair was not tied and was pretty messy, she had sleepy eyes and then she realized what she was wearing. Shorts and a half cut tank top. It was showing more skin than she would have ever been comfortable showing to … anyone. She surprised herself by realizing that she didn't care what she was wearing with him. She did blush profusely, but didn't speed off to change. She just sat at the counter in front of him and started sipping her coffee. Barry managed to get out of his daze smelling something burning.

 **"Good morning to you. I thought since my host was so gracious to not let me sleep under the National City Bridge, I might as well cook breakfast. Eggs, Pancakes and Bacon. Lots and lots of bacon. You`re a bacon girl, right?"** he asked turning to her seeing her with 2 strips in her mouth already. **"Yeah. You`re definitely a bacon girl"** he smiled.

 **"I was really hungry, this hit the spot. You seem to be used to cooking in the morning aren't you?"** she inquired sheepishly

 **"Yes, I am … it's been more of a ritual in my mornings. You know, when I wasn't being beat to death by an evil speedster or when I could actually reach the stove and not be stuck in a chair, paralyzed from the waist down"** He sighed.

 **"Barry you do realize there is enough food here for both of us and we eat a lot"** Kara conveyed with her words that he didn't need to cook more.

 **"Yea, I know it's enough"** he stopped realizing something then continued **"but leftovers are always good for people that need to eat as much as us"** he continued, but Kara saw that he stopped himself from saying something.

 **"I might throw you back under the bridge if you don't speak your mind"** she said bluntly **"I can see you trying to keep something in, I don't know what, but I would hope that we don't have to do this dance every time we talk. You know you can trust me with anything right ?"**

 **"I know but … if I tell you everything you might be weirded out and I really don't want you to get that feeling, or somehow think I might be a creep or even worse"** Barry tried to excuse himself

 **"Barry, I can't be your friend if you don't trust me. Tell me everything and if I get weirded out then so be it. Remember, I did ask for it. It's not like I'm going to stop being friends with you for something that petty, come on"** Kara said with a crooked look assuring the speedster that he could speak him mind with her always.

 **"I trust you with my life"** the instant answer was something she did not expect and the look on his face was dead serious **"I just don't want you to be weirded out about things that happened in a parallel universe, in a parallel timeline, in a future that no longer exists"**

 **"I know what you're saying, but that is a future you lived in. As much as I know about the other Barry, even if you are him, you have lived more. I do want to know more about you and your experiences in the future that made you who you are today. It makes perfect sense that I want to know everything so I can better know the person that is in front of me"** Kara frowned at the resistance that the man in front of her was putting up when asked about what he lived through. She also didn't have glasses on and was making puppy dog eyes at the speedster who finally gave in cracking a smile.

 **"God damn those puppy dog eyes. You have always used those as a weapon against me and I have always failed to defend myself against them"** He started to laugh. **"All right. I'll tell you. Just a word of warning. When I said you brought me out from the darkness, I was not kidding. My future was not all romance and roses. I have done bad things in my time. Things you might not approve of or might down right scare you"** he was being very serious and Kara took him at his word.

 **"It doesn't matter. I want to know more about the man that …"** She stopped herself from committing a Freudian slip and continued **"I'm currently sharing my apartment with. You seem to know a whole lot about me. Things that people here don't know. I want to be able to say the same thing about you. That seems fair … right?"** she explained

 **"Yes. It does. All right then. Fire away"** Barry sat on the chair looking at her, Kara's gaze kind of being stuck on his abs

 **"So about that. You know things that I have never told anyone about me. Not ever Alex or the DEO. Those things I would only tell …"** she got cut off

 **"Your boyfriend"** Barry finished her sentence and her jaw fell. **"You did ask what you were to me in my timeline. I think that just answered your question quite nicely"**

It was something the girl of steel was not expecting. She had thought multiple times about a relationship with the speedster. Even dreamed about it a few times, not that she would admit it to anyone, but he was in a relationship with someone else. So she tried to chase those dreams away. Start over with someone new. Except that someone new never came and she always was left in the back of her mind with the question of _"What if"._


	2. Pain

Kara was a bit shocked by his blunt answer, but quickly regained her composure and continued with the so called interrogation.

 **"I see. Then that's how you know all these things about me"** she managed to speak **"If you don't mind me asking … how did we … end up together?"** her voice was quiet and soft, but with a hint of excitement in her voice that Barry picked up on.

 **"You were the one that pulled me back from the dark side. After what happened with Zoom, I didn't care anymore about the morality of it all. I was broken and instead of capturing criminals, I killed them"** he stated bluntly prompting a gasp from the blue eyed blonde in front of him. **"Central City was the cleanest city in the country. Innocent people had nothing to worry, they even respected me even though to some I was nothing more than a demon"**

 **"So you gave up on yourself and on being a hero. You just became a dark protector. A vigilante you could say"** Kara answered, still trying to process what he just told her.

 **"Yes, a vigilante indeed. I was the same as Oliver was in his time as the Arrow. People who had failed Central City and its inhabitants would get cleaned out. Except without the voice changer, completely unseen because of my speed and way more lethal"** the man answered. Kara was surprised, she guessed that he had a hard life, but she could not imagine Barry Allen, any of them from any timeline becoming ruthless killers.

 **"So… what happened?"** Kara asked sitting next to him.

 **"Most of my friends tried to talk to me. Oliver, Thea, Diggle, Ray. But none of them were fast enough to catch me. When they started to talk about something that I was not completely comfortable with, I would just take off. I knew they couldn't catch me. Seeing that nobody could reach me, Oliver managed to get a message to you, to come help. My Cisco was gone, so it was up to Ray to build something that could breach universes. In the end, he did, but it could have gone out at any time. The problem with Ray's device was that in order to make a stable connection it needed someone from this side, preferably living matter to stabilize the rift."** Barry smiled bitterly.

 **"But, if the machine could have blown up at any time, how did I even agree to come? I just couldn't let National City alone"** Kara stated bluntly and then added **"I take that back, i might have come without any sort of issue if you were involved"** she had thought about how she felt and if her other version felt anything even remotely similar, she would have gone to help him without thinking twice.

 **"All that Oliver has told me from that day was this. He went through the opening, found you and had to mention that I'm in trouble. In 30 minutes you were back through the breach with him. As he said it, the girl didn't even think about consequences, she just came"** The speedster was trying to remember as best he could what happened. With the timeline erased sometimes memories were hard to recall, but it also confirmed Kara's suspicions.

 **"So I did leave National City alone. Do you know if I even called my cousin to help?"** Kara said with a bit of disdain in her eyes

 **"The next time we talked about this was way later and you told me that you did make the necessary arrangements for a long time stay in my world. You didn't mention what those were"** Barry answered **"Oliver called you for a very good reason. In my quest to defeat Zoom, I had given Ray the plans to make nanites that would slow him. But even with those I was way too fast for any of them. Except for a certain girl of steel"**

 **"Did I manage to catch you ?"** she asked.

 **"Not at first, well at least not until Ray tricked me and gave me the nanites to slow me down. After that, Yes and the first thing you did was to slap me so hard that you broke my jaw"** he chuckled. She x rayed him and saw the broken jaw that had been since healed. **"First time someone managed to clock me one so powerful in a long time"**

 **"Great, first time I meet my boyfriend and I break his jaw. Good one, Kara"** she tried to lighten the mood.

 **"It wasn't the first time we've met obviously and we weren't together at that time. You had no idea what happened on my Earth, but you knew it had to be something bad, because Oliver was the last person you`d expect to come to you for help, but yes, you could say that the first time you met me in a long time, you did break my jaw"** he smiled.

As the speedster was finishing his sentence a key could be heard in the front door and Alex walked in. She didn't see him at first, but when she did her face fell. She didn't expect to see him, not alone anyway. She did notice the small differences, which made her think that something happened. His eyes were not the same and he looked older, almost like he had a few years in the span of a few months since he had seen her last.

 **"Hey, Barry. I didn't know you`re back. Where's Caitlin?"** she asked.

 **"Alex, this isn't the Barry we knew. That one is still in his universe with his Caitlin. This one … well ... it's a bit more complicated to explain"** Kara scratched her head and Barry looked at her remembering how cute she could be.

 **"Well, I have some time. I came home to eat something then I'm going to go back to the DEO"** She replied. Kara took her aside and started to explain to her what happened. Her eyes went wide a few times as she heard the explanations. Barry could swear he had heard at least once _"I didn't know you liked older men"_ coming from where the two were talking, which made him chuckle.

 **"So, a time remnant from a future that no longer exists, huh?"** Alex came back stating that like it was something normal.

 **"Pretty much. Hey, Alex"** the speedster's eyes were on Kara as he talked to her sister. All of a sudden without much talk she lunged at him pulling a knife from her boot. Barry dodged that easily with his speed and Alex took a swan dive and murdered Kara's couch.

 **"Alex, what the hell?"** she looked at her sister getting up for another attack **"Could you please not attack my guests? It's like you have a fetish, first Barry and Caitlin when they turned my suicide mission of going after Non into a win and now Him?"**

 **"Calm down, Alex. I don't want to overreact and turn you into thinly sliced pieced of meat"** Barry said with a cold glare.

 **"Are you threatening me?"** she snickered.

 **"Not at all, but after losing all my friends and my family I tend to kill people that attack me for no reason and out of the blue. I would suggest you do not do that again, if you know what's good for you and if you still want to leave here with your life"** he replied with a dark tone in his voice. Kara was shocked. He never got to that part of the story. She always asked herself what had made him turn as dark as he did, but after what he said, she understood that it was pain. The pain of losing everyone around him.

 **"Alex, calm down. This Barry is way faster than the one we knew. He had 8 years to train to overcome his limits. He could probably make good on what he said and I wouldn't even be able to blink in the time it would take"** then she looked at Barry **"I would rather not have my sister sliced into hamburger meat, if you don't mind"**

 **"Kara, you have to understand, I do not want to do it. But over the years and battles with my enemies, of which I lost count, my body has developed certain reflexes that kept me alive all that time. Even me with my speed of thinking, reflexes are not something I can stop, since they are designed to be instant involuntary motions"** Barry said with a sad face **"Of course I don't want to harm Alex. She's like …"** He stopped **" Just don't attack me out of nowhere please"**

 **"I'm like ... what? Come on, spit it out"** Alex asked trying to wrap her head around how fast Barry had moved

 **"After Iris was killed, you became like a sister to me"** Barry stated bluntly prompting a surprised face from the DEO agent.

 **"Wait, wasn't Iris alive?"** Alex said with a confused look **"I think we saw her just a while back"**

 **"Wrong timeline, Alex"** Kara pointed out to her sister

 **"Oh, right. So … what are you doing here, Barry?"** she asked. His presence was still unsettling for her but she did manage to calm down.

 **"I thought I'd come here to start a new life, you could say. I can no longer travel in time or to other universes. The other universe already has Flash and Frost, this universe doesn't have a speedster so … I thought I could try here"** Barry explained.

 **"So I assume you`re here to help? Not to kill people?"** Alex said with a grim undertone

 **"Yes"** The answer he gave was purposefully vague **" I'm trying to turn over a new leaf"** he made a bad pun to which Kara chuckled

 **"Kara seems to trust you. She wouldn't let someone she considers a threat in her apartment and I saw what you did yesterday to help. So I guess I can cut you some slack. But if anything happens to my sister because of you, you`d better run, understand me, Flash?"** Alex smiled but the words were pretty clear.

 **"That would probably not be possible, Alex, even though if I did want to run, nobody in this universe could catch me at this time"** Barry stated prompting a quizzical look from Kara

 **"You know, Barry it doesn't matter how fast you are, these people can still catch up to you somehow"** she told him and he smiled

 **"Not what I meant. They probably can't catch me even if they tried, they lack the technology to slow me down and I have mentioned before, if I move at top speed the human eye might not even see me if it wouldn't be for my lightning. However, that isn't why it wouldn't be possible. If something happens to Kara and I'm around, that means I'm probably dead or severely injured, making running … a bit problematic. You understand"** Barry sat down on a chair looking at Alex and Kara whose jaws were on the floor. One question was running through Kara's mind _"did he just say he is willing to die before letting me get hurt?"_ the implications that the answer to that question brought in her head were … baffling. To which Barry responded almost like he was reading her mind **"The answer to that question you are probably asking yourselves right now is yes and you Kara already know why"**

 **"Kara?"** her sister looked at her, surprise planted all over her face.

 **"Yes. I know. It's a story for another time and you are right. I do trust him"** she gave the speedster one of her beautiful sunny smiles.

 **"Well I guess that settles it then. I'll take your gut on this one, sis "she got up to shake Barry's hand. "Welcome to National City, Barry Allen"** he took her hand and shook it

 **"Thank you. I'm really glad to be here"** he spoke. Her phone rang. It was Winn.

 **"Kara, there's a plane that's about to crash into the National City bridge. Can you get over there as fast as you can ?"**

 **"On my way"** before she could get out of her civilian clothes, Barry was already suited up, Alex didn't really manage to see anything except maybe a half a second blur as he changed

 **"How fast do we need to get there?"** he asked.

 **"As fast as possible"** she responded **"You run us there, I can fly fast, but I got nothing on you, scarlet speedster"** Barry nodded and picked her up. In the blink of an eye and with a large gust of wind Alex was left alone in Kara's apartment. **_"Maybe with this turn of events, Kara's life will start to get a turn for the better"_** she smiled to herself as she left, locking the door behind her.

The two were on the bridge in a matter of less than a second. The plane was still a ways off, but it was getting bigger by the second. Barry spoke

 **"Kara, you go level the plane. Don't worry about the bridge. I'll take care of that"** his voice sounded pretty convinced that he knew what he was doing

 **"I'm sorry, what? You're nuts"** she quipped but he continued

 **"Trust me. Just save those people. Level the plane and make it land safely. I'll take care of the bridge"** She looked at him seeing the conviction in his eyes, nodded and flew as fast as she could toward the plane. She managed to level it and keep it on a slow descent path, but they were still approaching the bridge.

 **"Everyone stay where you are and don't move an inch"** Flash yelled toward the people which, considering someone completely new was barking orders at them, strangely enough listened and stopped moving.

He grabbed a few cables and put his hand on the masonry and started vibrating. Translating those vibrations into the bridge itself that started to do the same with everything on it, cars, people until it was almost intangible. Kara with the plane leveled passed through the bridge as Barry cried out in pain, but continued to vibrate. He heard a thud way behind him, the plane hit water, so he started to lessen his vibrations and ultimately stopped hitting the ground smiling. He had forgotten how good it felt to help simple people in need, something that he still had done in his own time, but without criminals, the mishaps were few and far between. Kara flew by his side almost instantly, he smiled and then everything turned black.

 **"Barry! Barry!"** he heard Kara's voice. He woke up in the DEO on a medical bed with a lot of IV's on a stand next to him.

 **"Hey, Kara"** He smiled weakly hearing his stomach growl

 **"You idiot. Never do that to me again. You scared me half to death"** she was worried, she could see it in her blue eyes as she stood over him. He could have sworn that she had been crying, but could not actually be sure.

 **"How long have I been out?"** he asked sitting up on the bed.

 **"About 5 hours. What was that ? What did you do?"** she asked.

 **"I phased the bridge. For a couple of seconds while you took the plane through it, I made the bridge intangible, allowing you to glide the plane like it wasn't even there"** he stated. **"Phasing for me is easy, except I didn't know it would take so much energy for me to apply it on an object that large. I literally fell from exhaustion, which is why my stomach is growling right now"**

 **"That was amazing. Can I do it?"** she asked.

 **"No, sorry. Your Kryptonian physiology is too dense and you don't have the speed required"** she told her prompting a frown from her beautiful face.

 **"Flash, did you just call me dense?"** a smirk appeared.

 **"I guess I did, Supergirl, I guess I did"** he started to laugh.

Outside the glass where this was all taking place, Hank and Alex were watching the two.

 **"So, a time remnant from the future. This is new, also quite unexpected. It's the first time I have heard of something even remotely related to time travel that would function like you just detailed"** He said

 **"I know, I couldn't wrap my head around it either. Nothing is really new here, you`re a Martian and my sister is an alien. It's not like we live in a world of normality"** she chuckled while keeping an eye on the two inside.

 **"Do you trust him? I did like the old Barry, but this seems… different"** Hank inquired. He didn't know why, but somehow this person didn't seem like the same old speedster that he had met during the Non incident.

 **"Kara trusts him and that's enough for me. I didn't manage to get his full story. I think Kara might know more, but his life was hell. I wouldn't be surprised, if that changed anyone, including Kara, but he's the same old speedster at heart I think"** Alex told the DEO director.

 **"Nonetheless, keep an eye on him for a while. I would like to make sure he doesn't hurt anyone, all right ?"** he asked as politely as he could and Alex understood his concerns and nodded. He left and she entered the room where the two were having a bit of banter.

 **"Nice work, Flash. I didn't know you had that in you. So you can turn bridges into nothing?"** She smiled

 **"Apparently, yes I can and to be honest, neither did I. That's why I blacked out. Best I did until now was phasing a train full of people through a landslide on the tracks. But a bridge that size? Yeah ... I don't think I'm going to do that anytime soon, unless it's a request from Supergirl"** he winked and Kara started to blush. It was so easy for her to talk to him and he did have the added advantage of knowing almost everything about her or almost everything since the times do change.

 **"I thought Barry would be back in town, ever since I saw that lightning trick. Now I was sure he was back when I saw the bridge literally turn from solid to … not there"** a voice was heard from the door. It was Winn who was looking at the three in the room rather intently **"Hey man, how come it's just you, where's Caitlin?"** Barry groaned at that question and Kara winked at him.

 **"I'll take this one, you take the next one"** she smiled as she went off with Winn to explain the beauty of multiple timelines, time remnants and how there were now two of Barry. Alex used this time alone to try to question the speedster

 **"Barry, when you said I was like your sister, what did you mean?"** she asked.

 **"Exactly that. I lost Joe, I lost Iris. I became a monster for a while. Kara managed to bring me back. Without fail with Kara came Alex, the overprotective sister. You threatened me so many times that if Kara got hurt you were going to kill me yourself, that it kind of became our "thing". It was almost like I had a big sister that was too overprotective of me too, even if the tough exterior didn't show it"** he smiled.

 **"So, I don't need to tell you that anymore? Older me took care of beating that into your head didn't she?"** Alex relaxed

 **"Nope. You do not. You told me that for almost 3 years almost every day. I already know"** the speedster finally managed to stand.

 **"I have been meaning to ask … what was Kara to you, if I became your overprotective sister?"** she thought a bit before asking, knowing she might be prodding a bit too deep for the speedster to be comfortable with answering her.

 **"The only woman who showed me that I could love again after my son and the woman who was his mother were taken from me by Zoom, and which I had to bury next to the father that died because of the same man"** Barry responded truthfully prompting Alex to gasp at the revelation, but also realize how bad his life must have been before

 **"I'm truly sorry about what happened"** she managed to utter form the shock she had just received

 **"It was a long time ago, I have learned to deal with it. Do me a favor, don't tell her any of this. I don't want it to be weird between us. I am not the Barry she has a crush on. I have killed, I have maimed, I have taken lives on a whim. If she can accept that, maybe we can be together. If she cannot, then I will always be her friend and ready to help"**

 **"I understand. Thank you for being honest with me. You don't have to worry, I won't say a word"** She helped him get out of bed.

 **"Thank you. I learned early on that getting kicked in the balls was a preferable alternative to lying to Alex Danvers"** he gave her a smirk.

 **"Wow, was I that bad over there?"** she smiled.

 **"No, but you were extremely overprotective. Kara had some … problems in her personal life and you helped her through every one of them. You didn't want her to get hurt so you became her shield"** the answer came

" **Do I want to know what problems?"** Alex looked at him

 **"No, you don't. Even if you do, I won't share them, because they haven't happened here and if I have anything to say in the matter, they will never do"** She saw the conviction in his eyes.

 **"You really loved your Kara, didn't you? I can see it in the way you speak about her"** she sighed.

 **"I did, with all my black heart and soul. She was my light, the person that managed to see that the world isn't just black and white, but shades of love as well"** he smiled.

 **"I remember that the other Barry needed a lot of food. I don't know if you`re well enough to go speeding. What do you want? I'm going to go out and get you some food"** Alex offered, something that surprised Barry completely. In the other timeline Alex was never this kind to him.

 **"Just bring 20 or so extra-large pizzas and I should be good for energy for a while"** he smiled **"Alex, I wasn't kidding about the reflex to cut people in pieces. I would rather you warn guys around the DEO not to attack me without reason. I'm trying to change the way I react, but I wouldn't want to kill anyone until I manage to do so"** She saw he was being serious.

 **"Will do"** she left him to go get some food. Kara and Winn had just come back

 **"Where's Alex?"** Kara asked.

 **"She was kind enough to go get me 20 pizzas to replenish my energy after the bridge thing. She will be back"** Barry smiled but Kara was shocked.

 **"So, a time remnant from the future, huh?"** Winn asked.

 **"Yep. That's pretty much it. I am still Barry, just 8 years older, with a lot more experience and …"** he wanted to continue but he thought it inappropriate, only to be pleasantly surprised when Winn finished for him

 **"Single, apparently"** Kara gave him a death glare **"What? He is single isn't he? I bet Lena Luthor would love to meet this one"** he winked at Kara. At that time she had never wanted more than to hit Winn into the ground, but she stopped herself and gave him a glare.

 **"Oh, I'm sure she would"** Kara said with a snarky tone. The speedster picked up on that and snickered.

 **"I'm pretty sure that if she was like the Lena Luthor I met she would be pretty charming and interesting to have a discussion with"** Barry threw some gasoline on the fire just to see what would happen.

 **"You are so going to get it, Flash"** Kara lunged at him. But seeing him start to laugh she made a step back realizing that he was just teasing her, then she remembered what he told her in the apartment.

 **"You are such a target for teasing, Kara. I'm glad that didn't change over the years"** the Flash laughed, but his face lit up when he saw Alex almost falling over with the 20 pizzas he asked for. He didn't flash over, his energy level was low enough as it was. Instead he walked taking 10 from her and walked with her to the dining area. Alex has seen Barry and Caitlin eat before, but this was on a whole new level. Before she could put the boxes down he had already gone through two of them and was gnawing away at the third. He ate 19 pizzas before he was full, then he saw a puppy dog eyed Kara that was staring at him.

 **"Hey, I wouldn't think you would eat everything. I was hungry too, you know"** He was gone before anyone could see him and came back in under 5 minutes with a dozen boxes of pot stickers

 **"Special pot stickers for a special lady, now you can put away the puppy dog eyes and the pouty face"** Barry smiled putting them on the table and seeing Kara attack them like she hadn't eaten for a week.

 **"You`re slow, Barry. It took you 5 minutes to go to the Chinese restaurant in town to get her pot stickers?"** Alex laughed.

 **"You went to Wuxi again, didn't you? It would be the only reason that you would take that long"** Kara asked with a pot sticker in her mouth looking at him. She had recognized the distinct flavor the food from China had from the other day.

 **"I did tell you, that was the only place I got pot stickers for my …. For the other Kara"** he stopped himself short of saying something else, the only one that noticed was Alex who was smirking.

 **"Wait, where did you go ?"** Winn asked. Barry went over to a map and pointed to a place in China called Wuxi. Winn's face fell. **"Dude, you ran all the way to China for her pot stickers? That's amazing. You really are way faster than the other Barry. So what other cool stuff can you do?"** he exclaimed.

 **"All in good time, Winn. All in good time"** the speedster was gazing with his green eyes at Kara who was thoroughly enjoying her food.

 **"I guess we should head home. We have work tomorrow"** Kara suddenly realized it was ... pretty late.

 **"Work? Barry has work?"** Winn asked surprised.

 **"Yeah, he hacked himself CSI credentials and will be transferring to National City PD from Monday onward"** Kara said nonchalantly

 **"I thought that was my job!"** Winn tried to sound offended.

 **"Sorry, when you spend 2 months paralyzed from the waist down and can read 2000 pages a second you need to keep yourself occupied. So I kind of learned hacking on my own"** Barry spoke prompting an impressed look from Alex.

 **"No sweat man. Glad you can take care of yourself. But if you do need anything, you know where to find me"** he replied **"And with that said, I'm going to get some sleep. Good night everyone "**

 **"So am I. I'm beat. Not that I actually helped save anyone today. I must be getting old"** Alex smiled. Kara and Barry bid them good night and sped them to her apartment after she was done eating putting her down on the couch.

 **"So, where were we before we were so rudely interrupted?"** she smiled

 **"I was telling you that you broke my jaw after Oliver called you to get me to stop and talk to me"** He rubbed his jaw again.

 **"Ah yes. The "hello boyfriend, I broke your jaw"** **incident"** she chuckled.

 **"You managed to stop me and had the first real discussion with me in years. We spent almost 40 hours talking. In the middle of the desert, at 60 degrees. By the time we were done … you managed to have me agree to never run away from you. Still have no idea how that happened"** He said to her

 **"Maybe it's my unyielding charm"** she chuckled trying to lighten the mood.

 **"It might have well been to be honest. But I think it was something else. Something I haven't seen directed at me for quite a while after I became a killer"** he sighed.

 **"What was it ?"** she wanted to know what could get to someone like he was back then.

 **"Your smile. Nobody had smiled at me. They all respected me, they helped me, but I never saw anyone smile at me during that time. I don't know how to put it, but it was like they were happy to see me, but not. When we talked I saw for the first time a smile that was genuine, not forced or plastered on. Just a beautiful blonde alien smiling at me"** Barry tried to make it as simple as possible.

 **"I do have a great smile"** Kara tried a little bit of self-deprecating humor there but failed miserably

 **"Yes, you do have a beautiful smile, Kara"** Barry agreed, making her blush from every pore but feeling herself very tired.

 **"After that, I did promise you that I would not run away from you anymore, true, but I never promised anything of the sort for the others. So …"** Barry heard a small soft snore from her. Her face was on his chest, her arms underneath her body curled up against him. He didn't want to wake her, her sleeping face was beautiful, if you didn't count the slight drooling. Barry put his arms around her and held her close.

He remembered his Kara and how they would fall asleep watching movies and eating at night because they were too busy hopping universes and saving both cities. That was something that was a normal occurrence to them. Asleep, on the couch, in each other's arms and waking the next morning with a severe back pain that would go away in a few minutes. It was like he was already home. His thoughts soon left him at the sight of her golden locks and her sleeping face, which he did not consider creepy at all to watch, until he felt he could no longer stay awake. He drifted to sleep with Kara in his arms.


	3. Comfort

The next morning Barry woke up from his sleep. The couch was indeed awful, he had pains in places where he didn't know they were possible. All that simply went away when he saw the beautiful blonde who was sleeping on his chest. He did manage to get ahold of his phone and saw that it was pretty late. He didn't have a time to get to work, because it was his so called first day, but he was pretty sure she had to be at work before 8. She looks at him with a sleepy expression enjoying his green eyes

 **"Good morning, what time is it ?"**

 **"Around 7:30, which means you actually might be late for work"** he responds looking as her sleepy face turns into a bit of a panic

 **"Damn, Ms. Grant will want her latte …"** She looks at him chuckle

 **"Déjà vu. I've seen this exact scenario way too many times. We had brought it up to a fine point so you would get into work and not be late with her damn coffee"** Barry laughed. **"Go take a shower, get dressed, run to CatCo, don't fly, the wind will dry your hair, while you do that I'll go get her coffee and we meet in the lobby"** she nodded and sped away. Barry put some clothes on and went to get the woman's coffee. There was a line like always, he was getting annoyed at waiting, so with a super speed he ended up giving everyone their order while he got the coffee he wanted and flashed to CatCo. He met Kara in the lobby and gave her the coffee at 7:55.

 **"Wow, you were right. We actually made it. But … how ?"** she asked.

 **"We would often fall asleep on the couch Sunday nights watching movies. This happened quite often, so we devised this little … morning routine so you wouldn't be late"** Barry threw her one of his patented grins. She blushed heavily looking at him.

 **"She's coming. You'd better get out of here"** Kara blew him a kiss **"Good luck on your first day of work"**

 **"Thank you. There's something on your desk as well. Since we didn't really manage to eat breakfast. See you later"** Barry smiled and went into a side room and flashed out. She could see the trail of lightning blazing through the city in the distance.

 **"Sandra ! Where's my latte ?"** the woman almost screamed after she got off the private elevator

 **"Here it is, Ms. Grant. Just like you like it. Sandra might have … run out of the office crying yesterday"** she smiled toward her boss

 **"I guess I will have to get yet another assistant. Tell me Kiera, did you saw the news from the last two days ? And what are you doing bringing me my latte. Didn't I promote you?"** Cat grant asked her.

 **"Yes. Ms. Grant, you did and No, Ms. Grant. I was nowhere near a TV. I went back to visit my parents, so I was away from National City. Did anything important happen?"** she asked with a surprised face.

 **"You tell me. How's that friend of yours, what was his name again, Barry or something?"** Cat asked with a smirk

 **"No idea. Ms. Grant. I haven't seen him in a quite a while. He would have called if he was here. But I wasn't really available"** Kara drifted off

 **"So you didn't know his alter Ego was running around the city helping Supergirl the other day?"** Cat replied

 **"Alter ego? Oh… you still think he's one of the Blurs. Sorry"** Kara didn't manage to think through what she said

 **"What do you mean, I think he is? I know he is, Kiera. His personality and the way he presented himself were way too nice. He was either a Mormon, or a super hero and definitely not a cousin to any of you as you tried to play it out. I think I might have mentioned this to you several times till now"** Cat said with a bit of annoyance in her voice.

 **"As you say Ms. Grant. Anything on the agenda for today?"** she asked. Even if she had recently been promoted to Reporter, she would still help Cat when her assistants were running away crying. Something that Cat always appreciated, but never told her.

 **"I would like our Supergirl correspondent to have an interview with the Blur, of course. As soon as possible, we need to know why is he back and if he intends to stay in National City"** she said with a stern tone in her voice

 **"Are you sure he'll give me an interview?"** Kara asked but the media mogul was looking at her sheepishly

 **"I'm sure he will. If not send him to me"** Cat smirked as Kara went back to her office wondering how in blazes will she get an interview with the Flash and convince Cat that Barry isn't him.

Barry stood in front of the National City Police building working up the courage to go in. He knew that what he hacked for himself should give him all he needed, but he felt unsure as to the situation. Letting out a sigh he entered going to the receptionist.

 **"Hello, my name is Barry Allen. I was supposed to report here from today. I'm the CSI that transferred over from Coast City"** he told the woman

 **"The Chief is off today I think he already signed your papers yesterday. Come. Let me take you to the lab so you can start working if there is anything urgent. Feel free to ask me anything in case you need more information"** The woman was very polite and the lab where she took him was very similar to the one what he had been working in all these years. He went over to the computer and saw with satisfaction that it was a pretty beefy configuration. It could probably keep up with his extreme rate of speed when reading.

Everything seemed quiet. There were no cases left over so he decided to read the ones that were already there. There were some strange ones, which he supposed were aliens rather than people, but they were closed which meant the perpetrator was apprehended. He started to write some of his own software so he could keep an eye on the city. He remembered the Face recognition which he had "borrowed" from Felicity and Ray's motion tracker sensor net that used traffic cameras to pinpoint different people that were moving. Before he knew how much time had gone by, he received a message from Kara.

 _"Lunch?"_ she asked

 _"Sure. What do you want? I can get to the donut shop faster"_ he replied

 _"Just get a few boxes, it was hellish at work and I need some sweetness in my life"_ she replied. Barry sped out of the office and stopped in the alley behind the donut shop. He went in and sat at a table ordering 7 boxes of donuts, 2 coffees and a milk and strawberry parfait. Soon he saw Kara entering and he waved her over.

 **"So? How is your first day of work going?"** she asked sitting next to him, not in front as he thought.

 **"It's not. There are no cases, the Chief is out for the day so ... I just thought it would be a good time to start writing that software I was talking to you about. Thank god the computer at the precinct can keep up with me. What about you ?"** He smiled.

 **"I didn't manage to tell you, but I got promoted to Reporter. I'm actually the Supergirl correspondent for CatCo and my suspicions we right, the moment the "blur"** **appeared back in town … Ms. Grant thought I would be able to pull something with her so that she can convince him to give me an interview"** Kara sighed.

 **"I … don't really see the problem in that"** Barry smiled. **" I can give you an interview whenever you want. In private"** Kara started blushing furiously and then replied

 **"I was thinking maybe that plan of yours of convincing Cat that you aren't one of the Blurs might be needed sooner than any of us thought"** She told him

 **"Maybe. But didn't she say she wanted you to get that interview? It would be weird if Supergirl told the Flash to go directly to Cat Grant. Besides you don't need to call Hank. I can be in two places at once, I thought I already mentioned that"** Barry was giving her the patented Barry Allen goofy smile.

 **"So how can we do this so that it doesn't attract too much attention from her?"** Kara asked hoping he actually would have a plan.

 **"That's simple. After you go back you are going to receive a call from an old friend and you will tell him to come to work because you can't really get out right now. While we`re talking, the Flash will be there to respond to Ms. Grant's questions. You will have to make up some excuse about being busy, but that will effectively cut off her ideas about me being whoever she thinks I lug around as a secret identity"** He smiled.

 **"I still want to see you be in two places at once, as much as I trust you, this is something that has to be seen to be believed"** she quipped visibly excited.

 **"Come with me then"** they ate the rest of the donuts and went out to the meadow where the first breach opened. Barry started to run and in the distance Kara saw the lightning split in two. Before she could finish blinking in front of her there were two Barry Allen. One with normal clothes and one in his Flash suit.

 **"See?"** they both said at the same time.

 **"Wow, that is … amazing. Is that something I cannot do also because I am too dense?"** Supergirl winked at one of them.

 **"Actually it's because you don't have access to the speed force. I am surprised I can do it actually. Time remnants are something that can be done via time travel. But I cannot time travel due to the punishment I received. Which makes this something I can't explain. I'm glad it still works though, if it wouldn't have then we would have to go with the other plan and it might have turned out pretty awkward if J`onn had to pose as me"** the Barry in the flash suit answered.

 **"You go to CatCo and I'll be there shortly. We should leave the Flash for the interview"** The Barry in normal clothes spoke as he sped himself and Kara inside CatCo, leaving her to go up.

A few minutes later Kara got a call which she knew Cat would see. A short time after, Barry came out of the elevator, with a red rose in his hand, and went straight to her desk striking up a conversation. Cat was watching them from within her office when suddenly a flash of lightning appeared on her balcony, prompting her to go out.

 **"Hello, Ms. Grant. I have heard that you wanted an interview from me"** the Flash spoke with his normal metallic distorted voice.

 **"Yes, I told Kara to take care of it. How come you came to me?"** Cat asked surprised.

 **"I see Ms. Danvers is otherwise occupied, besides you were the one who wanted to talk to me, were you not? Asking her for an interview was just a diversion to get me here"** the Flash smiled. Cat was really surprised, she had no idea how come this person managed to read her so well.

 **"So she is. So tell me, Blur. How come you returned to National City ?"** Cat asked bluntly

 **"I would first like to make one thing clear. I am called the Flash, not the blur. As for why I have returned, that question has a very simple answer, I spent a while in Gotham helping someone, then went back to Central City, where there was nothing much to do, so I decided to come back here. It's always fun with all the metahumans and aliens and I do like to get a work out at least once a week. Being in Central City was … rather boring"** the Flash responded pretty bluntly

 **"I see. So it's the Flash, is it?"** he mimicked looking in the office where he saw himself talking to Kara, he tried to stifle his obvious surprise that the time remnant had brought flowers to her. He thought about that but didn't really have the time to do anything of the sort. Cat saw that and asked her next question **"You look pretty disappointed that Kara is occupied. Do you … I don't know, have a thing for her?"** her question was very brusque in nature

 **"Why, Ms. Grant. I didn't know you cared about my personal life. If there is someone I do have a thing for … it's not Kara Danvers"** he answered **"But if you must know, I wasn't looking at her, I was wondering what Barry was doing back here"**

 **"You know Barry Allen?"** she stopped the tape recorder **"off the record"**

 **"Yes, he is a brilliant CSI, he helped me on a few cases in Coast City where there were some … strange murders. I had no idea he came here. I'll let you in on a little secret, if it's someone with a thing for Kara Danvers, it's probably him. I believe you have noticed the red rose, didn't you?"** the Flash retorted calmly to Cat.

 **"Yes, I did and I think you`re right. It's obvious by the way they're talking"** Cat was looking at the two in the office noticing the inbound chemistry they had as they were chatting. The smiles and the movements, the way Kara's eyes lit up when she saw him and his relaxed demeanor around her **"So what can you tell me about who you have a thing for ?"** Cat replied with a smirk.

 **"Let's just say she's blonde and she flies and that's all you'll get out of me. You`re a smart woman, you can figure out who I'm talking about"** he started to laugh, with his metallic voice making it actually pretty sinister instead of funny **"Can I help you with anything else, Ms. Grant?"** she nodded turning her tape recorder back on

 **"Are you an alien like Supergirl?"** Cat asked.

 **"No. I am human. Born human, will die human. The accident that gave me these powers just mutated my cells. Nothing more"** The Flash replied.

 **"One last thing. How long do you plan on staying in National City ?"**

 **"I have no idea. I love helping people and working with Supergirl so ... as long as there are people that threaten this city and my home city is safe, I think the safe bet would be to say that I might be here for a while … a long while"** he offered to the media mogul, while he had indeed started to vibrate his face, the grin that was present was unmistakable.

 **"Thank you, Flash. I got what I needed"** Cat closed her tape recorder **"Now get out there and keep this city safe with Supergirl"** she smirked. He nodded and jumped over the railing, prompting Cat to look straight down after him. The way he ran down at super speed was pretty amazing for her. She had only seen Supergirl fly until then so the sight of someone running down a building was pretty interesting.

 **"Kiera!"** she yelled toward the door, prompting her to stop talking to her guest and run into her office.

 **"Yes, Ms. Grant"** she replied

 **"While you were busy with him, the Flash came by and gave ME the interview he was supposed to give you. Because and I quote "you were busy"**." Cat smirked at Kara **"I would appreciate if you don't bring your boyfriend to work anymore"**

 **"Ms. Grant, Barry is not my boyfriend"** she said defensively

 **"Of course he's not, just like pigs can fly and the sea is not salty"** the media mogul turned back and sat at her desk leaving Kara with her Jaw planted on the floor.

The day seemed to go by rather quickly. Nothing important happened, no villains, no fires, no emergencies. It was pretty strange for Kara. Ever since Barry came along it was quiet, almost too quiet. But she didn't mind, she got to spend time with him. After Cat went home, Kara went to her apartment to find it empty. A bunch of pot stickers and a note were on the table

 _"Went for a run, got you some food. Can you get me like 10 or so pizzas I'm probably going to be famished when I come back. ~Barry"_ Kara picked up the phone and ordered the pizzas, while she was happily munching on her pot stickers. In about 10 minutes Barry came back quite tired as she saw and he flopped on the couch.

 **"Hey you, keeping up with your speed?"** Kara smiled while biting on one of the pot stickers.

 **"I always do this. Even if there isn't any sort of speedster villain that is somehow faster than me anywhere in 10 universes. When there isn't anyone to save, I just … run to keep my speed up and burn calories"** Barry explained flashing out of his suit and into a pair of shorts with the usual no shirt policy. Usually that would bother Kara to the extreme, but she had gotten used to it in less than three days. Which was amazing in her book, she was shy and considering that she didn't really live with anyone else except her sister, having a shirtless man that looked hotter than sin on her couch was pretty distracting.

 **"So … where did you go?"** Kara asked looking straight at the shirtless speedster and feeling some butterflies in her stomach.

 **"Well, I did manage to break my old record. Remember I told you I managed a tour around the world in 5 minutes ?"** he smirked. **"Now I managed to make 10 of them, in less than 30 minutes"** Kara's face fell

 **"You are indeed fast, aren't you " she smiled**

 **"There are things that I slow down for, eventually"** he smirked.

 **"And what would those be ?"** Kara asked him seriously sitting next to him on the sofa.

 **"A certain girl of steel who injected me with nanobots and slapped me. Also who is cute when she sleeps and drools"** Barry started to laugh prompting Kara to start blushing and become a bit defensive

 **"Hey, I don't drool"**

 **"Next time I'll take a picture then if you don't believe me"** he laughed.

 **"Meanie"** Kara smiled back at him **"We did kind of fall asleep last night, didn't we?"**

 **"Yeah. We did. It might have been strange for you but in my case it was just a normal Sunday night. As you had might imagined because of the Monday morning routine"** He chuckled.

They both sat down on the couch as usual but this time Kara stood closer to him. Barry decided to not try and pull anything. He loved his Kara too much and losing her again would be something he would not like to experience. He gave her all the space she needed to make up her own mind about what she wanted with him, although, the blushes and hints were clearly there.

 **"Hey… can I ask you something ?"** Kara sad out of the blue

 **"Uh ... yeah? I thought we were past that"** Barry smiled

 **"Past what?"** she inquired.

 **"Past you needing to ask for permission before asking me something. I already agreed to answer to any and every question you put forth, so... shoot"** Barry was fiddling with a piece of pizza

 **"You told me your Caitlin died. But you never told me why or how it happened"** the moment she asked his face almost blackened and the smile turned into a sickened smirk. The disgust he had of that specific memory was firmly planted on his face. She saw the change instantly, from his usual carefree face and sweet smile to the expression of a man who had just been remembered something terrible **"You don't have to tell me"** Kara saw she had made a mistake, in the need to find out about him she had struck a nerve. He didn't say anything but it was visible on his face.

 **"It's fine. You asked. Besides, the memory is years old now, it doesn't affect me as much as it had in the past. There were times before when I would start crying every time I told this story. Cait died, yes. However what I did not mention is that I killed her"** Barry stated bluntly. Kara's face fell. She had no idea Barry would be able to do something like that, especially to someone he loved. Kara had some sort of reasoning in her mind, but knowing only the other Barry Allen and his personality she could not fathom why **"You already know Caitlin has ice powers, right? I would guess so since you have already met Frost"** Kara nodded. She had seen the person in question use her powers before **"And I have already told you that her powers had their own persona. A secondary entity, which I think, by what I've been told, that they managed to fight off and give back Caitlin control. I suspect it was because of the lightning and the bond they shared. In my world, she had gotten her powers long after I got mine, as I've already told you"** Kara nodded **"Of course, I was still to blame, because she was fine before I decided to jump in time to try to save my mother. But that is a story for another time. What was different is that in my world she tried to hide it from us. She went to her mother for help, which was surprising in itself, because her relationship with her mother was a train wreck, then after a while Cisco made her come clean and spill the secret she was hiding. The problem was that Zoom found out too"**

 **"Zoom turned her into a killer?"** Kara asked softly

 **"No. She did that herself. She was pregnant with our child at the time. Zoom kidnapped her and forced her to use her powers. When the other persona came out, her body suffered permanent changes which made the pregnancy incompatible with her altered state. She lost our child, combine that with the fact that she left me crippled with a spinal break… she gave into the pain and became Killer Frost. I never managed to see Caitlin again after that happened, her normal persona was gone. Usually when she would turn, I managed to bring her back and I could see that there was a piece of the old Caitlin somewhere in there and I would appeal to it until she came to the surface. When she changed permanently, there was no indication of her being there anymore, there was Killer Frost and nobody else"** Barry sighed, the words coming out of his chest like they were molasses. Kara out of habit x-rayed his spine to find a scar that had healed. However the bone presented itself with jagged marks, a permanent reminder of who did this to him. She didn't speak, waiting for him to continue. **"When it was time to go face Zoom, she came after me again. Hoping to kill me and secure her Lieutenant status with him. By that time Killer Frost didn't care about anything or anyone. She could drain heat from around her and as we fought quite a few people were frozen, a lot died that day because of her. I would have thought that the other metahumans would jump in and help her take me down, but that didn't happen. It was like the others wanted her out of the way. Nobody helped in the battle, so she kept draining heat off innocent bystanders to fight me. After everything was finished, our fight cost over 150 people their lives. I tried everything I could on her. Power suppressors would not work, trying to capture her seemed fruitless in the end I couldn't let her kill any more innocent people so ... after one of her large scale attacks, when I knew she was vulnerable I snuck up behind her and …"** his voice kind of cracked up. Kara could see he was calm, but the admittance of what he did still weighed heavily on his mind and his heart. She could see that there was no guilt, there was no pain, but saying the words seemed to be difficult for him, like he was running out of air while speaking **"I broke her neck, ending the reign of Killer Frost. After I cried my eyes off with her body in my arms, I was broken. That is when I changed, Imagine Barry Allen as you know him, remove everything that he feels and you get what I was back then. Menace, the killer, the dark protector of Central City. The man who had promised the dead mother of his son, that he will make sure the city is safe for everyone. That's what happened, Kara"** he sighed and took a breath of air.

 **"I'm sorry. Oh, Rao, I'm so sorry"** Kara felt so bad asking him that question. She had no idea what had happened and in the quest for knowledge she had him tell something, which was probably the worst highlight of his life. Thinking about him having to do that, without realizing it tears started to fall on her hand, her face was white and her eyes were red. While Barry was telling his story she had been inadvertently crying while listening to him **"I shouldn't have asked. That is such a sad memory. Please forgive my stupid questions, that is something nobody should ever try to make you remember, ever again"**

 **"You wanted to know"** Barry only now turning to her and seeing her cry. Out of reflex he grabbed her face with his hands gently taking the tears away **"Hey. Don't cry. I cried enough for that. No point in Kara Danvers ruining her beautiful face over something that happened nearly 6 years ago. I don't have to forgive your stupid questions. You`re right, you do have to know more about me as a person, even if that entails me having to speak about those memories again"** She calmed down, his hands were warm and her face was getting hot.

 **"How…"** Kara took a breath **"How do you even get over that?"**

 **"You don't. You live with it for all your life. You remember and try to honor the person, live in a way they would have liked and make sure you never make the same mistake again. It is something you will always carry with you, the only hope is that at some point in time, you can forget the pain and just remember. The other hope I have, is that if she can see me now, my Caitlin, not the one you know, she would be proud of me and what I have done ever since she died"** Barry sighed heavily and let himself drop on the couch staring at nothing. Kara put her hand over his and gave him a little squeeze, sadly she was not paying attention and a loud crunch noise could be heard and Barry making a pained face.

 **"Ow, my hand"** his voice shot up and he got his hand out form the vice grip of the one and only girl of steel who was now seconds away from panicking, crying and apologizing all at the same time.

 **"Oh Rao, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to"**

 **"Hey, it's fine. Not the first time that happened, hopefully not the last"** Barry started to vibrate his broken hand, while with the other one was resetting the bones. After about 3 minutes his hand was intact **"There, see? All better"** he waved it at the frowning Supergirl.

 **"Wait. You have done … that before haven't you?"** Realization dawning on her face. He looked extremely proficient at setting his own bones and mending his own fractures

 **"Yep, multiple times over the course of a few years. You see, my Kara was never good at controlling her strength when she was excited or happy or sad. Go ahead, x-ray my upper arms and shoulders. Tell me what you see"** he started to laugh while Kara did exactly what he told her. What she saw actually frightened her, most of his upper body was riddled with old fractures that were old and healed. Ribs, collar bones, arms and even jaw.

 **"Wow, you weren't kidding … you got more cracks than a failed cut diamond"** she quipped, Barry beginning to laugh at the comparison. **"So … how did you … you know, manage to avoid that problem"** Kara asked feeling the blush creeping up her cheeks.

 **"How about I just show you"** Barry stood up taking a fighting pose with his hands up like a coach. **"Hit my hand as hard as you can"**

 **"Are you kidding? You'll get your arm broken again"** She replied.

 **"Actually, it would be better that we don't do it inside, the impact might blow out your windows. Come with me"** he sped her into her Supergirl outfit and himself into his Flash outfit and ran her back to their meadow.

 **"Cute, Flash. I didn't need you to dress me you know"** she quipped.

 **"Not as cute as you, Supergirl and I had to. Because even when you think you change at super speed, you don't. For my eyes you always change at normal speed, or slow speed depending on how accelerated my perception is at the time. Anyway. Hit me"** Barry took the same pose and his hands started to vibrate. She started to blush furiously thinking about all the time she had changed in front of him at what she thought would protect her from his prying eyes, but now realized that her speed compared to his was at best, slow.

 **"Well, you wanted it … nothing I can do if you get hurt"** she threw a hard punch but when it hit hand it stopped instantly and the force exploded with a sonic boom. Her face was priceless. So she tried again only this time put all her force into it. Her hand collided with Barry's and let out another gust of air and another boom, but Barry seemed to be just fine. **"How … did you do that ?"**

 **"Mind if I have a go at you ? I'm not in the habit of hitting women but … just to prove a point"** Barry asked.

 **"Sure. Punch away"** Kara put up her hands like she saw him do it and he hit them. The impacts released the same sonic booms although she realized that her hands were actually hurting. Kara was baffled. She could not understand how the Flash got the same strength if not more than her.

 **"See the trick is in the vibrations. The faster they vibrate, the more power and mass they have. The faster I move them, the momentum is compounded with the vibrations producing that. It's physics. Only I have to produce power while you innately have it"** Barry explained. Kara was pleasantly surprised to hear him talking science. It was something that she always liked about him. **"This works the same. Vibrations in bone and muscle density. Here. Give me a hug as hard as you can"** Barry told her and began to vibrate. She did as she was asked and realized that no matter how hard the bone crushing was that she was giving him was, he did not even flinch.

 **"That is amazing. I have never met anyone, except my cousin, who could stand that much power put into one hug. I was literally trying to crush you, you know"** She smiled almost apologizing for using all her power.

 **"I kind of figured you were. This is just some stuff that needed to be learned when you have a super powered alien blonde who gets excited and forgets she can snap your arm like a twig with a simple slap"** Barry laughed as she was blushing again. She felt herself blushing too many times and knew that it was because of him **"This does work both ways as well. Try to get out of this, Girl of Steel"** He started to vibrate again and took her into a hug. She was struggling to get out, but had no clue the speedster could be so powerful. Even trying to fly didn't help, Barry's feet got planted into the ground so hard that they left foot prints.

 **"That is amazing"** she finally managed to utter after Barry let her go. **"With your speed and that vibrational thingy you are literally as strong as I am"**

 **"Yes, but this does take a lot out of me. I can keep it up ... but the most I ever could was one night. 12 hours. After that I had to eat 50 pizzas to recover, I think it's the first time in my life where I had to eat so much that I actually had a stomachache " he smirked at her.**

 **"Wait, why a night … " you could see the wheels turning in Kara's head and a sudden realization on her face. "Oh… OH !"**

 **"You`re blushing, Supergirl! "** Barry laughed at her inability to hide her feelings and the fact that she was yet so innocent compared to the other Kara.

 **"Why you …"** she tried to speed at him and missed. She was actually trying to give him a hug but he didn't know that. She was playing around. Barry decided it was time to show her another little trick.

 **"Hey Kara, can you guess which one is the real me?"** He smiled and started to move, suddenly where were 30 of him in the field all smiling at the dumbfounded blonde Kryptonian. **"I promise the real me won't move, so … come get me, if you can find me that is"** all the clones said at the same time. She tried her x ray vision, but seeing as the images were made by Barry, all of them had a skeletal structure, even though a bit blurry. She tried blasting through them with her heat vision but nothing came of that, she realized that he had to keep moving to be able to make the after images which meant her beams were useless. In a moment of inspiration she decided to just follow her instinct and her heart.

She walked along the rows of images that were turning to face her and suddenly she grabbed one and pulled it out of line. In a fraction of a second the field was empty again, Barry was smirking

 **"So you found me, huh?"** he smiled widely

 **"How did you know I would find you? It's the first time I have seen this trick"** Kara was blushing profusely not even knowing how she had done that.

 **"Because you always have. I haven't been able to fool you once with that trick. You always managed to know which was the real me. You told me that x ray vision and thermals don't work. You tried to listen for my heartbeat, that didn't work because there was an echo from the after images and many more things. You could never find me with tricks, but you could always find me when you followed your gut and your heart. Maybe because those actually knew me"** Barry gave her a goofy grin. Kara thought it was unfair that he knew her so well. Maybe it was time that she knew him better.

 **"I'm glad that I can't hurt you. You have no idea how bad it is to try control everything at every moment of your life"** she smiled bitterly.

 **"I know. I have seen this before, remember? One time, my Kara had a cold. Some Kryptonian flu virus of some unknown description. She blew the windows off my apartment twice, not being able to control her freeze breath. It was kind of interesting trying to explain to the cops why our windows had been blown out … from the inside, not only that but the fact that it was snowing in July in front of my apartment"** he remembered and started to laugh.

 **"But she got better didn't she?"** Kara asked.

 **"Yes, it only took two weeks of constant care and attention. Which was some of the best time in my life back then. I always enjoyed spending time with her"** he replied truthfully. The time he had spent taking care of her when she was sick was a nice memory, even if she drooled when she slept. Barry picked her up and sped back to her apartment changing them both into normal clothes, as the two continued about their day together sharing stories and watching movies.


	4. Questions

Barry was back at the NCPD Lab working on a case that one of the detective brought evidence in. The Chief had come back to work and he wanted to finish everything as fast as he could so he could go speak to him. The person in charge made it very clear that he did not like being kept waiting, so after finishing the tests he had to run he went and knocked at the man's door.

 **"Good morning, Chief. You wanted to see me?"** he greeted the man behind the desk

 **"Yes, you`re the new guy that transferred here at the start of the week are you not? Barry Allen?"** the man replied with a question

 **"Yes I am, sir"**

 **"Glad to have you here, Mr. Allen. You seem to be quite an asset. I read quite a few of the Coast City PD files that you were working on. You seem to have a knack for strange cases. Have you dealt with aliens before?"** he asked.

 **"Only a few sir. There aren't as many of them in Coast City as here. I have deal with other types of super powered humans before. Or you could say mutated humans"** Barry tried to be as vague as possible, he knew that the STAR Particle accelerator explosion did not happen on this Earth, but he had read something about people that were adversely affected by some experiments in another town.

 **"I see. Then I guess you could call yourself a detective as well, could you not ? Since you investigate, but I see in some cases you have closed the case yourself. Something commendable for a simple CSI with no police training"** The man told him reading the files.

 **"I am a CSI. The fact that I closed some cases does not make me a detective. Of course, I pride myself in the fact that I can observe and read almost anything at a crime scene, but without police training I cannot really be a detective"** Barry replied truthfully.

 **"Some of the gear that you made for the CCPD, can you make some of that for us? That would work on all kinds of beings?"** the interrogation continued.

 **"I should be able to, yes. But that type of research and development requires funding and some of the things that I developed for the CCPD were too expensive to put out on the streets, so they were mothballed. I managed to create only a few devices and that was it"** Barry tried to stick with his story.

 **"Mr. Allen, we take out alien problem pretty seriously in this city. If I secure you the funding can you make and / or improve your designs, as well as make sure our police force has those on hand in case of new threats?"** the man asked sternly

 **"Of course Chief. It would be my pleasure to do so"** Barry responded asking himself what the man actually wanted.

 **"Good, you`re still the CSI, so your police work takes precedence of course. Go get trained with a gun, you`re going to be out in the field helping the detectives and I would like to be sure that you can take care of yourself in that circumstance. In your spare time, if you have any while working I would like you to do what I have asked of you earlier"** The man replied.

 **"Yes sir, I will do that" the speedster replied.**

 **"And Allen?"**

 **"Yes sir?"**

 **"Welcome to National City"** The man smiled from behind the desk

 **"Thank you, sir. Glad to be here"** the speedster replied closing the door behind him.

When he returned to his lab there was some news on TV. The Venture, a new type of spacecraft that was launched that day was having engine trouble. Barry knew exactly what that meant, when he saw Supergirl fly toward the flaming plane that came down. He changed into his suit and flashed out of the NCPD, following the vapor trail that the craft had left behind it. He soon managed to catch up with it and saw Kara trying to stop it with another figure tugging at the craft from behind. **_"Clark's here"_** He smiled. The two managed to stop the craft but at the last moment the impact of it hitting the ground damaged the engine that was powering it.

 **"Supergirl, can you check the plane? I think I might have heard something when you managed to stop it"** Barry yelled at her prompting Superman to give him an inquisitive look.

 **"Flash, there is plasma gas that is building up in the conduits of the Venture. It's going to blow. We need to take all those people out"** she went and wanted to rip the bird open to get at the people.

 **"Supergirl, DON'T!"** he yelled prompting the two super heroes to come next to him **"You need to take the people out without any damage to the outer hull. Tell me where the plasma conduits are"** he asked. Kara looked again and sighed.

 **"You`re right. They are on the outer hull, but how are we supposed to take the people out if we can't break in?"** she asked frustrated. Superman was still motionless and when he did want to ask something, his cousin motioned him to do it later.

 **"I know how. Remember the bridge?"** Barry told her

 **"You can't, that almost killed you"** she yelled.

 **"You want to let these people die then?"** he retorted with a question she knew the answer to already

 **"Do it. I'll get you out of the blast radius if you black out"** she told him

 **"What is he going to do ?"** Superman asked.

 **"I'm going to phase the outer hull. You can use your x-ray vision to get the people in and out as fast as you can. Phasing means it will still be opaque but you will be able to go right through it"** Clark looked weird at the man but didn't say a word. Barry started vibrating and soon after the outer hull of the Venture was vibrating as well

 **"Go. I can't keep this up for long"** Barry told the two. Kara went to the side of the craft and saw that her hand went straight through it.

 **"Let's go Kal. We can go through it"** she motioned to her cousin and they started taking people out of the Venture. It took a few minutes but everyone was safe. Barry had been feeling the vibrations of the plasma flow and tried to keep it contained, but it was out of his control now.

 **"Barry, let's go. We got everyone out"** Kara came next to him,

 **"Kara If I let go there will be an explosion. You should get out of here"** He told her.

 **"No, Barry. You know I'm not leaving you"** she told the speedster **"You need to return them to the normal vibrational frequency so that they solidify again right?"**

 **"Yes. How did you figure that out ?"** he asked surprised.

 **"Naturally intelligent remember. What happens if you just take your hands off it?"** she asked.

 **"I don't know. But it might actually disintegrate. Do you think these guys would be mad at us if I disintegrate their plane?"** The Flash laughed.

 **"Who cares. Do it. I don't want to lose you. We got everyone out. They can build another plane. They cannot build another Flash"** she said with a steel conviction in her eyes. The speedster nodded and detached his hands from the plane. The molecules in their excited state could not maintain their cohesion and the outer hull of the plane just disintegrated before their eyes as Barry fell to her feet.

 **"Good job, Flash"** she smiled at the sleeping Barry who had blacked out from the strain of phasing a 4000 ton outer hull. She took him in her arms and flew with him to the DEO, her cousin following her.

They put him in the medical area. Kara knew what happened so she sped out and brought 20 pizzas for the speedster that was now sleeping with 30 IV bags in his arm.

 **"So, Kara, how come Barry is back in town?"** Clark asked.

 **"It was his turn to explain but I guess now that he saved the day, I'll do it for him"** She grinned. **"This is not the Barry we met before. That one had a wife and a partner. You remember her right?"**

 **"Yes, Caitlin. That's the other question that I wanted to ask. Where is she?"** Superman asked sitting at the table with his cousin.

 **"Well, this is still Barry, but he is a time remnant of an old timeline. He is 8 years older than the man we met and well … he's single"** She quipped to her cousin

 **"Ah… yes … I do remember the looks you gave that other Barry. I do think Caitlin told you to get yourself another one?"** he laughed. Kara didn't know that Clark knew that story **"So ... an older version of that Barry from ... the future?"** he asked still confused.

 **"Yes. Only his life did not go as well as our Barry's did. He had to do some … questionable things. He lost the woman he loved, his child and his best friends all in one and he came back to change all that. He succeeded, which is why the other Barry's life is so good now, but in doing so he got stuck. He thought I might need some help and here he is"** Kara summarized as well as she could

 **"That seems a bit shady. I mean why would he think of you, you`ve only met a couple of times"** Clark asked giving the unconscious speedster the stink eye.

 **"This will seem hard for you to understand, but this Barry has known me for quite a while. By what he was saying at least 5 years. Did you see what he did when I was holding up that building?"** Kara asked referring to the incident that happened that weekend.

 **"No I didn't catch it. What did he do?"** Clark asked.

 **"You already know that Barry could throw lightning. Well this time, this Barry threw lightning at me"** she told her cousin which immediately seemed angry, but she stopped him. **"He managed to change the nature of the electrical energy in the lightning via vibration and instead of hurting me, it supercharged my cells"**

 **"But, how could he do that unless"** Clark realized

 **"He knew my genetic make-up, the frequency of which my cells vibrate and the exact wavelength of the energy I need"** she nodded.

 **"Is there anyone on this earth who knows all of those three?"** Superman asked very surprised.

 **"No. Not even you. You know my genetics and the type of energy I need. Because it's the same you require. The DEO knows the energy type, not the exact wavelength, the frequency of my cells, but not my complete genetic structure. Alex managed to scrub that from their computers for ... obvious reasons"** she answered truthfully.

 **"So how does he?"** Clark asked visibly disturbed.

 **"I think in the future where he is from, we were so close that I voluntarily let him study me so he could help if necessary"** Kara blurted out **"I would only let someone do that if I trusted them with my life and at the moment there are only two people that I completely trust with that. Him and you. On the other earth there are also Caitlin, her Barry and Cisco as well"**

 **"What about Alex and Hank?"** Superman asked.

 **"I do trust them with my life. But not enough to let them study me. It's not because of them, but because of the DEO. I always knew that they wanted to turn me into a weapon and if by some mistake all that information should be in their hands, neither me nor you would ever be safe again. Because … government that fears powerful aliens and seeks to control us and turn us into weapons for their own devices"** She stated.

 **"How close do you think you two were back in his timeline?"** the man in blue inquired.

 **"Considering he knows everything about me, including stories about Krypton I haven't even told you … I would say pretty close. Boyfriend level close or even above that"** Kara blushed as she was saying that.

 **"So what do you intend to do about him then?"** the obvious question came.

 **"No idea. But you know … I do like him and it's so nice when you don't have to hide part of yourself from the person that you want around. I think you know, it's how you told me you feel around Lois"** Kara stated bluntly **"Except in his case it's even more than that. I cannot hurt him with my strength, he devised something that lets him become as strong as us. Even if I do hurt him, yesterday he healed from a broken wrist in 3 minutes flat. I can let go and not worry"** Kara gave her cousin a smile which was surprised.

 **"He can actually not be crushed by one of your hugs? Wow that's ... something, even I can feel those"** He managed to blurt out.

 **"Kal, he did it for me. Specifically for the Kara in his time, because he has a lot of fractures on him that could only come from botched hugs"** she chuckled.

 **"Kara, just … be careful with him, Ok? I know you like him, I can see that all over your face and of course you can do whatever you want with your life, but I don't want you getting hurt"** Superman managed to express his worry for his cousin.

 **"I will, Kal. I will. But something in my gut tells me that this person came here to stay for a reason and I want to believe that he will trust me enough someday to tell me what that reason is"** She knew what the reason was, of course, Barry was pretty clear about it, but for now she didn't want Kal to have the whole story. Her super hearing picked up a groan. She instantly got up and was at Barry's bedside

 **"Well, at least it's not 5 hours"** He chuckled looking at the clock. Only an hour had passed since he blacked out.

 **"Welcome back, Flash. I got those 20 pizzas you need to get yourself powered back up. I can help you walk if you need to"** Kara smiled to the man that was standing up

 **"Lead the way, Girl of Steel. I can walk just not run"** he smiled as she led him back to the table at which she and her cousin were chatting.

 **"Hello Cl…"** the Flash stopped **"Do they know your identity at the DEO?"** the speedster asked Superman.

 **"No and thank you for asking about that, because by what you were about to say you definitely do. While here call me Kal or Superman"** He offered back

 **"All right then. Hello, Kal. Nice to see you, again"** Barry sat at the table literally inhaling the pizzas that Kara brought him

 **"You do realize we have never met, right? At least not from what Kara just told me"** Superman was visibly amused.

 **"Oh. Right. Sorry. Timeline shift and all that. Hi. I'm Barry Allen, I'm the fastest man alive"** he introduced himself making Superman cringe a little. Kara saw that and spoke

 **"Sorry, Kal. But he actually is. He went to a city in China to get me pot stickers in under 5 minutes. Yesterday he made a turn around the globe in 3 minutes. So that title he just threw around ... trust me. It's not for show. He is faster than you and I combined. You already knew that Barry and Caitlin were way faster than us. Imagine those two only doubled"** Surprise could be read on his face. He knew the other Barry and his Caitlin were faster than him, but this guy running around the globe in 3 minutes, that was just too much.

 **"I have met the other Barry Allen briefly. Him and his wife as well. But you must have a ridiculous top speed if that's true"** Kal grinned at the Flash while he was on his 13th pizza.

 **"After some research on my own cells which I did back in my timeline, apparently the top speed potential I have is very close to that of the speed of light. So you can say that"** the Flash offered smiling at the Kryptonians.

 **"That's quite fast"** Kal replied watching how the speedster ate.

 **"Are you hungry, Kara?"** Barry asked after finishing his pizzas.

 **"A bit, if you want to get something, just go in town, don't run to Wuxi again for pot stickers. Ok ?"** Kara told the speedster.

 **"Donuts then?"** he asked.

 **"Those will do fine"** she nodded and he was gone. He came back in 3 seconds flat with 5 boxes of donuts from her favorite shop **"Thank you"** she started to eat.

 **"Good work out there. We couldn't have saved all those people without your help"** Kal thanked the speedster.

 **"I'm always here to help. That's the second main reason I came to this world from mine"** he smiled.

 **"So what was the first?"** Superman inquired quite bluntly

 **"Miss sunshine over here. I thought she might use a hand with all the problems she had lately"** Barry responded making Kara blush severely. Superman smiled seeing his cousin so flustered. She excused herself leaving Barry alone with Kal.

 **"Kal, I need to ask you something. Did you send James Olsen here to keep an eye on Kara?"** Barry asked bluntly

 **"I did, why do you ask?"** Kal replied

 **"In my timeline, he provoked quite some pain and heartache to your cousin. I would like if that doesn't happen now. But I have to know that you are alright with me doing all I can to keep Kara from getting herself hurt by what he does"** The speedster said with a dead serious face **"Of course, except kill him. That's out of the question"**

 **"I see, I thought he would help steer Kara to the right path, but if what you`re telling me is true, then the fact that he is here is more of a pain in the ass then actual help"** Kal spoke with a pensive look on his face.

 **"Yes, he is. He already broke her heart once. She didn't tell me, but the story seems to be about the same as in my timeline. After the red K incident. Do I have your permission to put him in his place if he gets to be too much of a thorn in my side?"** the Flash asked.

 **"Yes. Do whatever feels necessary short of harming him. He might be my friend but nobody harms Kara, not if I have anything to say about it"** he nodded.

 **"Thanks. You know that I'll anything I can to keep her safe, right?"** Barry inquired.

 **"I thought you might. I don't really know you but I see the way you look at her. You really loved the Kara back in your timeline, didn't you?"** Superman stated the obvious.

 **"You are the second person that has asked me that. I didn't think it would be so obvious. Yes, very much so, with all my heart. You already should know I'll do whatever I can so that nobody hurts one hair off her pretty head"** Barry smiled widely toward Superman, while Kara was walking back toward the table. She didn't want to listen in on their talk so she had her super hearing concentrate on Barry's heartbeat.

 **"I'm glad you`re here to help, then"** Kal shook the speedsters hand totally surprising Kara **"I need to go right now, but I will be around if you need me"** he smiled to the two and flew out the door.

 **"That went ... way better than it should have"** Barry scratched the back of his head.

 **"What do you mean?"** Kara asked finishing her food.

 **"The first time me and Kal met, let's just say he asked what the hell do I think I'm doing with his baby cousin and was close to burning me a new face. I did manage to phase thought his grip, but it was still scary"** Barry replied.

 **"Wait, are you serious?"** she almost choked on some water she got for herself.

 **"Totally. We weren't even together or anything, we just spent a lot of time together helping each other and I guess he overreacted. That was … not fun"** the speedster replied.

 **"That sounds like Kal. I know he wants to protect me, but I guess he understood now seeing you in action that you aren't a menace to my safety"** Kara immediately observed the change on his face when she said that word and decided to ask him what was that about. **"Why does that make you cringe?"** she asked bluntly

 **"It's the vigilante name I had, remember? I stopped being the Flash. I became Menace. Which of course would make sense considering I was a menace to all that didn't obey the law"** Barry told her.

 **"Sorry, but that's just so corny. The only menace I could think about right now is Dennis"** Kara started to smile.

 **"Only you would make something as bad as that memory for me into something that makes me smile"** Barry grinned. **"But that's what makes you … you, Kara"**

 **"Bad memories aren't to be forgotten, Barry. Sometimes you just have to find the person that turns those from bad to at least acceptable"** She replied **"Come on. Let's get out of here"**

 **"Damn, I need to go back to work. Don't you have to be back at the office as well?"** Barry asked her

 **"No, I got Winn to cover for me. If Cat didn't ask for me then she must think I'm out to get Supergirl stories, which means I'm free for the rest of the afternoon. As much as I love being a reporter, sometimes it's refreshing to know that I can just go out to search for myself for an interview as a way to get a day off"** she smiled

 **"So when do you actually do your writing?"** Barry asked quite surprised.

 **"Considering I can type really fast ? Whenever I get 30 minutes free, sometimes even less if the laptop can keep up with me"** she smiled.

 **"The Chief asked me to do some research into gear that could potentially nullify powers and design containment systems for them. Since I don't have any cases I thought I could do some of that. But why don't you help me or you aren't into science that much?"** Barry asked.

 **"I have never been a science person, I do assimilate things pretty fast thought so that shouldn't be a problem. Besides, if I get to hang out with you all day then I'm fine with science"** Kara smiled brightly at him then realizing what she said she started to blush.

 **"Yes, Kara, as you might have notice I enjoy your company too"** He smiled **"Well let's go to the NCPD. IF they ask what you`re doing there just tell them you`re a CSI like me. If they try to track your credentials they will end up with a small error which will alert me that I have to produce you some credentials"** The speedster told her.

 **"Wow can't believe you actually thought of that in advance"** She was surprised at the tenacity and forward thinking he showed.

 **"I thought you might want to help. Call it a … hunch"** he smiled.

 **"Just a hunch, huh?"** she smiled as they took off for the NCPD. They had to change in the alley. They both entered the NCPD and went up to the lab. Nobody even tried to stop them, the receptionist even smiled **"So what do you really want to do ?"** she asked.

 **"I have some ideas for alien gear. You know aliens and their powers. I can build specific things for each race, but some will require theories that have not really been used the way I want to use them. Don't you think that a simple CSI might attract attention if he discovers a totally new way of using a theory?"** Barry asked.

 **"Is this knowledge you have from the future or something that could be applied with current day technology?"** Kara asked raising an issue that he hand thought about

 **"Most of it can be done with current tech. But the way the theories are used is not something that scientists are thinking about at this time. That's why I said I might draw attention too much on myself"** The speedster replied bluntly

 **"You are beginning a new life. Maybe that's not such a bad thing. Barry Allen, cutting edge researcher in Alien and Metahuman Development. That doesn't really sound bad, even though you probably won't be able to work as a CSI anymore. Maybe start your own lab?"** Kara offered another possibility

 **"Starting something from the ground up requires a lot of money. I don't think I will have what I need funds wise even if I freeload off of you for 10 years and put whatever I get from the NCPD away every month" he said with a sigh.**

 **"How about we just start with the small things. Stuff that can be done with the tech today and the theories that are in play. After that, maybe we can come up with something more substantial and who knows"** Kara was smiling, Barry looked at her and realized she was right. They would have a lot of time to figure that out. Hopefully together. They went around through the lab and got the feel with what they had at their disposal. Barry and Kara started working. The sunny blonde was no science expert, but with Barry helping and explaining along the way and the fact that she was naturally intelligent she started to get things frighteningly fast.

 **"I wonder why you always wanted to be a reporter. The way you get science and how you assimilate everything is amazing"** Barry commented looking at the blonde that decided to write her article while he was reading something

 **"What do you mean, always?"** she sked raiding her gaze from her laptop while it was catching up to her typing.

 **"The only two versions I knew of you always wanted to be reporters or something equally inconspicuous I guess. But both of you have this immense capability to absorb and process information, as well as technology and theories that you retain, being Kryptonian, would help earth immensely"** Barry explained.

 **"How do you know what I know?"** She sked him sheepishly

 **"You aren't different from the one I know. The knowledge she retained from Krypton as well as the things she absorbed during the trip here. I saw you, in my time, school one of the biggest minds in physics with a theory you learned when you were 4. So yes, I have an idea. But my question still remains, Kara"** Barry didn't back down hoping to get an answer.

 **"I … don't really know to be honest. I don't think I ever had an affinity for science. I enjoy writing and being close to people and the news. I guess part of the reporter effect Clark had an influence in that"** she answered looking at him

 **"I see. Then let me ask you this. Why wait for the news, when you can make the news and no, I'm not referring making the news as someone else"** Barry asked her quite bluntly

 **"Part of the ... whole you know, means that one person has to stay under the radar. I doubt that people won't pick up on the gag as soon as I enter the spotlight. These"** she pointed to her glasses **"work well, but not that well"**

 **"Well if it's something I don't want to play around with, is someone finding out that. Everything I do is up to a point and no matter how much I wanted to do something, I put your security and well-being first"** Barry commented continuing to fiddle around with a pair of cuffs. He had remembered from his time how to make them, but they would work on metahumans. Aliens had a totally different physiology and there might have been others that had Kara's power which could only be contained with one thing without hurting her.

 **"Barry, what happened in your timeline that you would say that? Your dreams should always come first, doesn't matter how deeply I am or not involved with them"** Kara came toward him grabbing his arm.

 **"I did that once before, by my stupidity. Because of that, an innocent man lost his life and I had to kill two more. I am not that person anymore, although I would probably slaughter anyone that tries to harm you in any way"** Barry sighed **"I'm trying to start a new life, but my tendencies are still there. It's going to take a while before I can control them, which is why I have to be very careful about my actions. I don't want innocent people to be caught in the crossfire, because if it comes down to a choice between them or your safety, I will kill them"**

 **"I understand, you don't want to involve innocent people that you might need to kill later. I'm glad you`re trying to control those tendencies and you aren't going to be alone while you try. How about that"** she quipped holding his hand, gently this time

 **"There was one large advantage of you being with me on my earth. There was no Kryptonite there. The only danger you were in was someone finding out your identity. When they did, a good friend of mine tries to stifle the story and the people that knew who you were had to put him down. Here however if someone finds out your identity, you are liable to get shot in your own home, should someone consider once that Supergirl is a threat to National Security. So the odds of you being in peril are infinitely higher, which is why I need to be infinitely more careful"** Barry started to talk with his head in the cuffs that he was building, but Kara could see on his face that he was worried, truly worried about her. She had no idea what Barry would want to do, but she realized that, even if it meant not fulfilling his dream, he would always put her first. That in itself, with the fact that Barry said in not so many words that he would die before she would get hurt made Kara fall for him even more.

 **"Who says we can't do both?"** she inquired looking at him **"I don't have to be a public person I can help you do your stuff from the shadows and you can take the credit"** she grinned.

 **"Me? I'm a gentleman"** Barry grinned **"I always give credit where credit is due. How could I not give you your deserved recognition if you work with me?"**

 **"I don't need it. As far as whoever else is concerned I can always remain a reporter, or a media person, that way I get to help you and I don't get to stand out. Seems like a win-win to me"** She smiled.

 **"We'll talk more about that some other time. I have to get the stuff done that I can with the current tech without advancing it too much due to my own discoveries. You might be surprised but a whole lot can change in 8 years"** Barry was talking while a person entered the room

 **"Mr. Allen, just dropped by to see how you were doing on that project we talked about. I had no idea you have guests"** The Chief looked at the sunny blonde that was writing on the other desk he noticed the CatCo insignia she had. Kara forgot to take it off. **"I had no idea we were communicating with the press, either. Why was I not notified of this?"**

 **"It's fine Chief, she is not here to write about the precinct. Just thought I'd offer a friend a quiet place to get away from a busy office"** Barry commented **"I can tell her to leave if it's a problem"** he offered.

 **"No, not at all. If it's just that and she isn't bothering you from work then there is no problem. Hello, I'm Mark Singer"** He presented himself to the blonde

 **"Kara Danvers, nice to meet you, Chief"** the blonde responded shaking his hand.

 **"Ms. Danvers is no ordinary reporter, she had a change of heart and took that up, she has good skills as a CSI and I thought if she has time she can always help me with my cases. On her own time that is"** the speedster offered the Chief

 **"As you might know Mr. Allen, presenting criminal investigation reports and evidence to someone outside the NCPD is illegal"** He looked at Kara who was tinkering on something else **"But as long as you are the only person that submits the results, I don't see that as being a problem. I suspect Ms. Danvers' boss won't be thrilled if she finds out she's moonlighting as a CSI at the NCPD"** Singer smiled. He had traded blows once or twice with the woman known as Cat Grant. He know how pig headed she could be when she wanted to.

 **"You are right, Chief. I would probably get fired rather quickly. But sometimes the noise in the office is so distracting, that I just need to go somewhere else to write. Before Barry transferred here I would go to the park or to a coffee shop, to be close to the action as well. But now, I can always come here. I don't mean to cause trouble"** she responded looking at the man

 **"Like I said, as long as you don't disturb Mr. Allen from his work and do not ask details about ongoing investigations for the paper, then I see no problem in you being here. So, how is that little project we were talking about earlier?"** the Chief asked sitting down

 **"I'm making a pair of cuffs that can dampen out any sort of metahuman abilities. Not aliens, I have no access to their physiology and without that coming up for a blanket solution is pretty hard"** Barry explained to the man

 **"Metahumans? What are those?"** he asked

 **"People, ordinary people that have had the metagene activated in them and now have extra powers. Like … Livewire for example. She isn't an alien, just a human with powers. I'm working on these first since there is a larger chance of a metahuman attack rather than an alien one right now"** the speedster managed to point out to the Chief.

 **"I see. About the aliens, there is a government agency out there that handles aliens and everything that comes with them. If you need material to study I can try to talk to one of my contacts there and see if that would work"** the Chief offered.

 **"That would be something, Chief. I need at least a few cell samples from the repeat offenders. In studying their cells I can find out their properties and how to counter act them"** Barry responded.

 **"Ok, you continue with what you were working on, but you can always do that tomorrow. It's late"** He pointed to the outside. It was already dark, the two were so engorged in their work that they totally missed it.

 **"Understood. Good night, Chief"** he offered putting down the cuffs.

 **"Good night, Mr. Allen. Ms. Danvers"** he replied as her left the lab

 **"Time to go home?"** Kara asked him smiling.

 **"Time to go home"** he replied offering his arm to the smiling blonde.

* * *

AN : Decided to rename the previous chapter since it makes more sense to me as to use the name for this one, since it made a little more sense to me that way.

to Guest ("some of the best karry stories around") : thank you, i try to write things i enjoy reading as well, i'm glad you're liking it.


	5. Near

The two decided to just walk, they didn't care that much about the dangerous places they had to go through to get home. They smiled to themselves, if someone would actually try to mug them or worse kill them they would have a large surprise. Who could think that a naïve looking blonde and a scrawny CSI that looked more like a nerd than a superhero could the two most powerful people in National City at the time.

 **"I saw that you were looking something in relation to Kryptonite. Why, if I might ask?"** Kara questioned the speedster.

 **"I had an idea a while back, well actually a while forward but you get the joke. That there were elements that were not harmful to you, but when put together could counteract the effect that the green rock has on you. Call it like ... protection from solar radiation"** Barry chuckled.

 **"You always thought about how to keep me safe, haven't you?"** she asked with a sadness in her eyes. She did not really like that, she wanted someone that she would be an equal with, not someone like Kal who would be sometimes overprotective but not understand she could take care of herself.

 **"Of course. Just like you always thought to keep me safe. Kara and I had an understanding. We would protect each other as best we could, but we also had an unwritten rule. Don't be stupid. If the situation is not extremely hazardous, don't be a hero and try to get yourself killed for the other one. You are the strongest woman on this earth and probably in this universe. But you aren't indestructible and you know that"** Barry explained making Kara light up. She understood from his words that what he and his Kara had was a partnership and in a partnership, they two had each other's backs.

 **"I know. I'm not indestructible, there is kryptonite going around and for people that would like to kill me, there are ways to get a hand on that. Or in the case of Maxwell Lord, just create his own"** She looked at him kind of disgusted

 **"Ah, the red k incident. It took me 3 years to stop you from beating yourself about that one. But here's the actual problem. You need to stay away from any sort of iteration of that substance. In my time, covert organizations from your world invented some pretty nasty variation of that damn rock"** Barry replied to her looking really worried.

 **"Yeah, Barry and Caitlin managed to set me straight on that one. They showed me that the people could forgive my misdeeds. What do you mean, nasty iterations?"** she inquired with a confused look on her face.

 **"Well, there was the blue kind, which totally negated your powers, gold, which could take away your powers for good, red, which enraged you, there was one that made you lose your inhibitions and then there was black. That was by far the worst crap that timeline came up with. On contact, it split you into two beings, one evil and one good. Imagine you fighting with yourself and the one who wins, becomes the new Supergirl"** Barry tried to remember all the sorts that he had come up during time with his Kara.

 **"Wow, those sound ... nasty. Wait, did you say one that took away your inhibitions?"** She looked at him incredulously

 **"Ugh, that was … a strange encounter to say the least. I don't remember if it was pink or purple, but it didn't actually hurt you, which is probably why I don't remember the color"** Barry almost face palmed, but blushed hard.

 **"This I have to hear"** the blonde grinned at the speedster. She asked specifically because she saw him blushing.

 **"Nothing that long of a story. We weren't even dating at the time. We just went back and forth and helped each other. One day out of the blue, when I came home from work, you were in my apartment, wearing nothing, but a lace see-through nightie. Apparently that type of rock made you act like you`re drunk, but lucidly. You lost all restraints. I finally managed to get you to your senses, but you never stopped apologizing for that, well at least not until we started dating, at which point you started to wear that nighty … more often"** Barry smiled. Kara's face was frozen in shock. She liked Barry, crush or no crush, but actually doing something like that to her was unimaginable, maybe that would be a thing when they were together, but not even that. She promised herself to stay away from any type of Kryptonite. She kind of figured by the way sometimes Barry slipped his words that he loved his Kara, but she didn't want to rush things, a mistake like that could totally ruin the nice thing that the two had.

 **"That's … awful. I guess I should stay away from any type of kryptonite then huh?"** she gave him a cringed smile. Barry noticed it.

 **"Staying away from any kind of kryptonite is a given. Although I can say I liked the Unchained Kara I met that night. A bit off the rails with no measure of control. It was … interesting and also enticing"** Barry smiled at the blonde. Kara was again surprised, but this time, a bit less. Barry had called her enticing, she wanted to know more, but she was embarrassed by what her other self had done.

 **"Hey, want to go get some donuts before we get home?"** Kara asked nonchalantly

 **"Of course, I could never say no to donuts with you. Lead the way"** he gave her one of his patented Barry Allen grins. They made a detour to her favorite donut shop and Barry noticed a change in her demeanor. She was acting like a giddy schoolgirl. His sharp observational skills came in really handy. So, he decided to chance it.

 **"You ok? You seem a bit ... distraught, probably more than usual"** the speedster asked diving into a box of donuts.

 **"Oh. Yeah. I'm fine. Nothing different here. I'm totally fine"** she babbled making Barry chuckle **"Are you laughing at me, Mr. Allen?"** she asked.

 **"No. but I think you`re cute when you babble. You remind me of Felicity. That is her specialty. You never babbled …"** then his face turned into a large grin **" correction, the only times you did babble, were when we were out on a date"** Barry stated the obvious and Kara started to blush heavily **"Oh my. Ms. Danvers, did you ask me out on a donut date by any chance?"** the speedster chuckled. Kara was livid, Barry managed to read her perfectly.

 **"You know, that is unfair. You have known me for a long time and even know how I would react to some things. Yes, I did ask you on a date"** she said trying to sound irritated

 **"Not really unfair. The knowledge I have might not be true. But in order to know if it's true or not you still have to ask. Thank you for answering my little question"** he grinned widely looking at how red Kara had become. She did realize right then and then she had played right into his hand **"Also, thank you for the invite, although all you had to do is say so, you know I enjoy spending time with you"**

 **"I will ask then next time"** She then realized what she said. In her own words she confirmed that there would be a next time and another date. **_"God damn it, Kara. You and your big mouth"_** she thought.

 **"Good and I will answer the same way I have always did when you asked me out. With a large grinning yes"** the speedster smiled brightly at her

They finished their donuts and seeing as it was late they decided to speed back home. They changed into house clothes and decided to just muck around watching movies. Barry had observed it. Every day ever since they had started to live together, Kara would sit closer and closer to him. He remembered the same moves pulled on him by the other one and chuckled in his head. Kara was starting to fall asleep in his arms, so he decided to break it up. He took her to bed and closed the door. The tiredness still loomed above him so he fell into a deep sleep.

He woke up in the middle of Central City. The Central City which he came from all in ruins and with fires everywhere started by the rogue metahumans that Zoom had brought with him. Around him, the images of the people he loved were standing, like it was a large meeting with him in the middle. No, not a large meeting, it was more like he was in front of a tribunal and all the people that were there were the jurors.

He recognized them all. After a short while all of them started to shimmer, as the injuries they suffered appeared on their bodies. The images were haunting him and had been haunting him for a long time. Then she appeared, Kara, intact and smiling at him. She looked like she would be the judge in this little tribunal of guilt. The ghosts nodded and the world began to disintegrate around him, strands of matter were floating off the ground as the world was slowly disappearing into nothingness. He tried to run, but his speed was nothing, he could barely move. In front of him, Kara started to disintegrate as well, slowly, strand by strand, like she was erased from time. The faster he ran the father way he was from her. He started to yell her name, stopping from the storm of lightning and slowing down to a snail's pace of walking, but he finally managed to touch her hand when it evaporated. He was now alone in the middle of the city with the shadows looming on top of his head, the singularity opened above him, but unmoving, like it was a bad prop added to a picture afterwards in Photoshop.

 **"Kara!"** he yelled looking for her in every corner where he could **"KARA?!"**

She was woken up by shouting, it was nearly morning so it didn't matter that much. Her super hearing alerted her that someone was in trouble. To her surprise it was Barry's voice that was screaming her name. She sped to his side seeing that he was flailing around and not knowing what to do she took him in her arms.

 **"Barry!"** she whispered in his ear **"Barry wake up you`re having a nightmare"** She shook him harder until he managed to calm down and open his eyes.

 **"Kara. Oh"** he realized where he was. **"Nightmares, huh?"** he asked rubbing his forehead. She noticed that he had been crying, his eyes were red and there were water marks all over his face like he had cried for a long time.

 **"Yeah. You were screaming my name. So I came as fast as I could. Move over"** she told him and she laid down on the couch next to him watching with her big blue eyes. **"Do you get them often?"** she asked.

 **"Yes. There were periods when I couldn't get a good night's sleep for a long time. All night, every night there were the nightmares. Variations of the same theme, but the outcomes were always the same. Me losing someone"** he acknowledged her question.

 **"So, what happened to me? Since you were shouting my name I'm assuming the nightmare that just ended was about me"** she asked.

 **"You disappeared, in time. Dissolved, like you were never there along with every person I knew and loved. I know this nightmare well. I've had it since I came back three years ago"** He told her. Kara got comfortable, her head was on his shoulder one hand was under her and the other was on his chest. She could feel the way his heart was racing.

 **"Why this theme of a nightmare. I understand getting killed, or losing someone. I have had those nightmares myself, but dissolving in time? That is a new one even for me"** she told the speedster

 **"When I changed the past, the timeline that I was trying to prevent disappeared like it never was. The time set in its place so that future no longer exists. I suspect that's why the nightmares are the way they are. Sometimes I feel that by erasing it I erased the people and every good thing they did while they were alive"** Barry answered truthfully.

 **"Tell me something, you said we were together in that future. Why would you come back and try to change the past, weren't you happy with me and wanted to get back Caitlin?"** Kara asked a hard question, she had to know what drove him to change the past, but most of all she wanted to make sure that she wasn't being second fiddle to a man that would always want his first love back.

 **"I didn't want to come back at all. I was happy with you. But you … weren't happy with me"** He said with a sigh

 **"Wait, what?"** she asked making wide eyes at the speedster.

 **"Kara was the one that pushed me to go back. Before I decided to jump we were having fights about that pretty often. She second guessed herself. Always thought that she would be second fiddle to me, who would always want Caitlin back. I didn't, she was gone. I would always love her and remember her as she was before she turned into a murderer, but I had moved on. What she never understood back in that timeline was the fact that if I would still had been hung up on Caitlin, she would have never had a chance to come into my life. I would have just grieved and wanted to be left alone. I wanted to be with her more than anything, but her own self- doubts lead to us fighting"** Barry partly replied, but Kara could see that he was holding something back. Without saying anything she waited for him to continue. She had on her mind to tell him to go live under the bridge for a few days if he didn't tell her the truth. He continued

 **"The last month before I decided to come back, things got worse. I don't know what triggered that change but she became cold, she left and was spending more and more time in her own dimension. The times that we were together were spent fighting. The more I tried to patch it up, the more we drifted apart. Until one day, she just stopped coming. She stopped answering my calls and just told me to get lost and that she didn't want to have anything to do with me ever again. After a few days trying to contact her after she started ignoring me, I thought I should hop dimensions and come see her, except she had threatened me before that if I ever show my face around, she would throw me into space. So … I was left alone again, Oliver already knew what was going to happen and came to speak to me to prevent it, but it was too late. I had already made up my mind. That morning I ate as much as I could and jumped back"** he saw in his eyes that the memory pained him greatly. Kara was speechless. The question she just asked was for the same reason. Something that she needed to know.

 **"But, why would she do that? I assume you had a future together so her sending you back would be … strange to say the least"** she managed to speak

 **"I don't know. I assume she had her reasons, but since she didn't speak to me at all afterwards, I guess we'll never know. As you might imagine, the person that was next to me and had pulled me out of my murder spree now was suddenly gone. I had nothing again and when a man has nothing to lose, he is the most dangerous. Caitlin asked me the same thing and I didn't know what to tell her just like I don't know what to tell you. I guess she did have some sort of rationale behind it. I suspect that she thought I would always love Caitlin and never be able to fully commit to her. Which was of course a load of horse shit, I loved her with all my heart. This just goes to show you, self-doubt can terminate everything, from a beautiful relationship between people that love each other, to a whole timeline"** Barry told the blonde holding her hand that was on his chest.

 **"I had no idea, I'm sorry I asked. So that's the cause of the nightmare?"** Kara inquired with a heavy heart.

 **"I read psychology. From that point I think the fact that I continually see her disappearing is not because she died. We had a future, something that was wonderful. I erased that future... and everyone that was in it. Including her. I don't really mind it now. You`re here with me, but as you might know, nightmares are not so easy to get rid of. They still haunt me to this day. That is just the latest iteration, there are more of them where that one came from"** Barry stared blankly at the ceiling. Kara did not know what to do, the same reason she had asked that question now turned out to be the reason this speedster is now stuck in time without a place to call his own. **_"Stupid questions"_** she admonished herself for her own insecurities and looked at Barry who had turned his face toward her watching her facial expressions. **"Don't worry. What happened, happened. This is why I didn't want to share most of the things that I went through, even if I lived through them. That timeline is dead and gone now. I don't want you to feel responsible for the action of the duplicate you that was with me back then"**

 **"I understand. Thank you for telling me, even if that in a way never happened. But I want to make one thing clear to you. Right here. Right now"** she raised her head above his.

 **"And what would that be?"** he looked at her with an inquisitive glance

 **"I promise I will be here as long as you want me to be here. I don't intend to leave you alone and will probably not do that even if you tell me to go away. I'm stubborn like that"** She smiled brightly at him.

 **"Supergirl, did you just say what I think you said?"** Barry smiled.

 **"No Flash, I didn't say anything. I made a promise which I intend to keep"** Kara replied with a sheepish smile. Their lips were dangerously close to each other, Kara's heart was racing and her mind was blurry about what she wanted to do. Something inside her told her it's too soon and there was a loud voice that said **_"Go for it!"_** What could she do except listen to the loud voice. She leaned in and kissed him gently, their lips touching in a soft and gentle manner. That kiss was something she had not experienced before then, she kind of figured he was a good kisser, but this was a whole different dimension to what she was feeling. Barry deepened the kiss with his arms pulling her in. The position was strange however and by twitching Kara slid off his arm and ended up on the floor. She lay there watching the ceiling for a few seconds before muttering.

 **"That was … wow"** above her Barry's head emerged from the side of the bed looking at her with wide eyes.

 **"You can say that again"** he replied, but Kara saw that his face had changed. The blank soulless expression that he had while he was telling her his story had turned into one of his patented goofy smiles that apparently were the same at any age.

 **"That was … wow"** she reiterated looking at him with wide eyes, making him laugh. She had wanted to do that the first time she met the speedster, but seeing that he already had a fiancée it was completely and totally inappropriate for her to do something like that. She didn't like to admit it, but she had fantasized about this moment enough. The conclusion in her head was obvious, her fantasies didn't to that kiss justice.

 **"You all right?"** Barry smiled offering her a hand to get up.

 **"I'm fine, I'm glad I didn't fall over the table. Last time I did I had to get a new one"** she cringed a bit remembering how fast that table came apart. This time it was her turn to be surprised when Barry pulled her into another kiss holding her tight with his hand around her body. Her hands went around his and felt his body vibrating where her hands were. She let go, enjoyed the kiss fully without thinking about control knowing that while he was vibrating she could not hurt him. It lasted for what they could have sworn it was an eternity which in real time was nothing more than a few minutes. When they finally managed to split the kiss apart they looked at each other and smiled brightly.

 **"That was amazing. I wonder why I didn't do that sooner"** Kara smirked at the speedster.

 **"Hello? Unknown speedster that came from another time, ex murderer and all around menace. I'm surprised that this happened so soon"** Barry was telling the truth. She could see it in his eyes.

 **"Whatever you went through, you are still Barry at heart"** She smiled **"Yes, your life was nothing short of hellish, but that didn't change who you are. Or at least not from what I'm seeing"**

 **"You always know how to brighten up my life, Kara"** he smiled and kissed her softly **"Thank you"**

 **"You`re welcome. Well since we're up, let's get some pancakes for breakfast. There's another hour until we have to go to work"** she smiled brightly at the speedster who in a few seconds already had pancake batter done in a large bowl and was heating up the pans. Kara walked toward him and grabbed one of the pans feeling his hands around her body and him kissing her neck. Something had changed between them with that single kiss. Kara was no longer doubting herself and knew that this person was still Barry. The Barry she had a crush on. The speedster on the other hand got his confirmation that even if she was younger, this was still his Kara. Maybe a bit more pigheaded and unexperienced, but still the same person. Their moment together however was short lived, her phone started to ring. It was Winn who apparently couldn't sleep.

 **"Kara, the silent alarms at National City Bank have just been activated. I think that there might be something wrong over there"** Kara looked at her watch. Since she had gotten her promotion it wasn't necessary for her to go get Cat's latte every morning, but she was still expected to be at work. Barry looked at her watch then saw the annoyance on her face and he was gone. He came back in less than 5 seconds grinning. **"Um, ok, never mind that. The situation seems to have solved itself, the police arrived on the scene and all the thieves were on the street tied together and knocked out. Later, see you"**

 **"Ok Winn, talk to you later"** she closed the line **"Thank you for that. Now I don't have to be late"**

 **"I know"** the answer came with the associated Barry grin. **"I saw you were annoyed when he called. So ... I just took care of the robbery. Don't worry, I don't intend to go out alone saving the city. I wouldn't want people to think that Supergirl is slacking off"** he winked at her sending shivers up her spine.

 **"Meet up for lunch?"** she asked

 **"I can take some spare clothes for you and leave a window open and you can come visit me at work?"** the speedster replied

 **"Sure, here"** she sped around the room and gave him a small bag with some garments " **You can leave those at the lab, for when I come visit then"**

 **"You got it. Want a lift?"** he asked smirking

 **"Nope you`re about to be late too, Mr. I'll fly to CatCo. It's faster for me. I'll see you at lunch. Take care"** she blew him a kiss and went out the window. He grinned and flashed to work. He checked his ins and outs, nothing interesting or alien related. Just a normal murder which had the evidence to be analyzed which Barry had finished in less than half an hour. He went back to work on the metahuman cuffs patiently waiting for lunch.

He had managed to find the EM field variables just fine, but the vibrational frequency was off, so he took a blackboard and started writing equations on it, then another one and another one. Three large blackboards were set up in a semicircle around him. He couldn't figure out why the cuffs didn't seem to work. He had one on his hand and kept constantly phasing out of it like something was wrong. He always looked around when he tried that just so was sure nobody saw him. The Lab door was still wide open and anyone could enter at any time.

Time passed and he saw a text from Kara. _"Be there in 10 minutes. I'm bringing donuts. X"._ He closed the door on the lab and flashed all the way across the ocean and bought her pot stickers. He put them in his locker nicely packed right under her clothes. She flew in the room pressing her necklace and she changed into the clothes that were in the locker finding the surprise underneath

 **"Thank you for this. China?"** she smiled kissing his cheek for a thank you.

 **"Of course, you know that's where I always go to get pot stickers for my Kara, unless she tells me otherwise"** he smiled. She noticed the way that sentence was phrased. He didn't pause when he said _"my Kara"_ and it was formulated in the present. It was obvious he was not talking anymore about the one from the future, but her. She shrugged it off for now, maybe it was her own wishful thinking that led her to consider the semantics of a simple sentence, but it was showing all over her face. Enough for Barry to pick up on it **"You all right? You seem a bit pensive"** he smiled motioning to the pot stickers she was holding.

 **"Perfectly fine, you just surprised me. You know it's not an everyday occurrence that someone runs to China to get me my favorite food"** she lied

 **"Want it to make it one? I don't mind, you know I always like to train my speed"** Barry gave her a wink.

 **"We shall see about that I know you actually consume a lot of energy when you do that. You told me yourself. Still, as always, thank you for going"** they both sat next to each other and starting gulping down the food. Kara was looking toward the blackboards as well, she was trying to understand, what Barry was trying to do there. They managed to go through all the food in a little while.

 **"What are you working on?"** she asked nonchalantly as she was walking over with him to the blackboards.

 **"Trying to understand why these cuffs aren't working. The equations are the same as I know them, but in this scenario the frequency doesn't work"** He said a bit annoyed.

 **"Barry, did you take into account the fact that this universe vibrates at a different frequency than yours? I recall the other Barry telling me that alternate universes vibrate at different frequencies which means, what you've been missing is the constant that's in these equations. It not for your earth, but for mine"** She told him circling the symbol on one of the blackboards that was part of a long equation. Barry looked at her then at the blackboard then back at her and face palmed.

 **"You`re right I did forget these are different universes. So I was basically off by the difference in frequency behind your earth and mine, positive or negative"** then looked at Kara surprised. **"Wait, you understood all of that ?"** he pointed at the blackboard

 **"Not like it's hard, those are basic equations for dampening vibrations at an atomic level"** She said with an angelic smile on her face.

 **"Basic huh?"** he grinned **"These aren't basic at all, took me two weeks to get the hang of them and you just look over them and somehow you understand. You were totally undercutting your power to learn, didn't you ?"** Barry smirked at her

 **"Actually, I might have studied these while I was on the pod to earth so … "** Kara didn't finish her sentence.

 **"You cheated"** Barry caught her in his hands kissing her lips softly then whispering in her ear. **"Doesn't matter, thank you for pointing out such a blaring mistake"**

 **"You are welcome, hope that helped"** she quipped **"Back to work, see you soon"** she went back to the locker and put her suit on blowing him a kiss and she flew out the window.

Barry got back to work to correct the mistake that Kara had found and after a few hours he had the cuffs adjusted the new frequency. To his satisfaction when he tried to phase through them, even when retaining his power he couldn't. The metahuman cuffs were complete. After he finished them evidence of a multiple homicide came in, it seemed like it wasn't due to some alien weaponry, the bodies were completely desiccated but he managed to figure out that whatever caused that left a small piece of tissue intact at the point of contact. The time flew and working as hard as he was he totally missed Kara who didn't fly in, but just walked.

 **"I see, someone's busy"** she spoke startling Barry who was concentrated on his work.

 **"Yeah, I did manage to finish those metahuman cuffs, with your input, but then there's this evidence of a multiple homicide that I need to finish, this guy seems dangerous and anything I can do faster that would help catch him would be preferable"** He smiled at the girl who was just resting leaned against the door.

 **"I'm going to get us some food and Coffee. I'm going to help too. You don't look so well"** She frowned pointing at the large bags under his eyes

 **"I didn't really sleep that well last night as you know. The nightmares force my body to remain active and the reflexes stay awake, that is no way to rest. Not the first time it's happened, probably won't be the last. I'm used to it by now, Kara, but food and coffee would be greatly appreciated. Also some help as well"** He smiled toward the blonde who nodded and was gone returning in a few seconds with some pizzas, some donuts and two large containers of coffee.

 **"Have you never felt safe in your life?"** She asked him putting the stuff she bought on a table.

 **"I really don't know. I can say that I stopped having nightmares when the other Kara was around, but that is not entirely true. I still had them, yes they weren't so frequent, but they were still there. Product of a guilty mind I guess"** Barry half smiled at the person who was now attacking a box of donuts.

 **"You should learn to forgive yourself for your misdeeds"** Kara spoke to him with half her mouth full with a donut while he took some coffee and finished 2 pizzas almost instantly.

 **"Look who's talking, you blamed yourself for the red k incident for more than 5 years and it wasn't your fault them. Takes one to know one"** Barry grinned while starting another pizza.

 **"That was then, I feel ... different now. I don't know how to put it another way"** She finished her part of the food. **"How can I help?"** she asked.

 **"Look at me and what I'm doing, since you can assimilate knowledge that fast I suspect after one or two tries you should get it"** Barry told her and taking another sip of his coffee he started to zip around doing various things. Kara stood near the door to listen for people that might come in and watched him. Barry had thought correctly, just short of the second time to finish, Kara started to do the same herself. He had two of everything in the lab so her working wasn't a problem, she did however take the precaution to close the door. With her help the evidence processing was done in less than 30 minutes neatly stacked on the table near the door.

 **"Ok, I guess we can go home now. Unless you want to do something else?"** He asked. But Kara saw that he was yawning hard while they were working.

 **"No, you need some rest for tonight Mr."** she smiled as they were going down the stairs. Chief Singer was at the bottom looking at the two.

 **"Allen, didn't we bring you a lot of evidence from a mass murder a couple of hours ago?"** He asked looking at the two a bit annoyed.

 **"Yes, you did. It's also finished. I put on the table in front of my lab the sorted evidence with the names of the detectives that it has to go to. I took the liberty and noted which one brought which piece of evidence"** Barry told him

 **"You mean, you finished all that heap of evidence in 2 hours? What, you have super speed or something?"** Singer told him which made Kara chuckle inadvertently.

 **"Of course not sir, but I do have a very competent person to help"** he nodded toward the blonde.

 **"I see, I guess that makes sense, two people work faster. Good work then, both of you, I thought I should come and tell you we need that evidence processed ASAP, but now I don't have to"** he nodded toward the two and left to talk with two of his detectives. Barry and Kara left the NCPD and sped over to her apartment changing into normal clothes as they arrived. It wasn't late but Kara told him to skip their normal regimen of Netflix and he should try to get some sleep. She started to float around the house to not disturb him. Barry was out like a light almost immediately, but it didn't take long, Kara didn't even fall asleep, for him to start calling her name again.

 **"Hey, wake up"** she nudged him carefully enough to not break a bone.

 **"Huh? Uh? What? Oh"** the speedster still was half asleep, but realized what had happened when he saw Kara's worried face **"Well this is wonderful"** he muttered with annoyance. Then he started to sing **"Hello insomnia, my old friend"** Kara started to chuckle but then looked at him. He had bubbles of sweat on his forehead, his eyes were red and he looked like he was in pain.

 **"Come on"** she took his hand and dragged him to her bedroom pointing at the other side of her bed. **"You`re sleeping there tonight and maybe for a few nights more after that"** He wanted to say something but he got cut off rather quickly **"No discussions. Maybe with me around you won't have so many nightmares. You said it yourself that with your Kara that didn't happen"** She replied sternly looking at him.

 **"You mean the other Kara"** he smiled. She looked at him and she realized that his phrasing from earlier and from now had shifted.

 **"Yeah, her. I know we're the same person, but it feels weird talking about yourself that is older and from a timeline that is gone"** she tried to explain

 **"Precisely why I decided to call her "other"** **Kara. You won't be her, because for that to become reality, some other stuff that are precursors have to happen as well. Which have not come to pass and I won't let them. So considering that fact, you are Kara. She was the other one"** Barry smiled getting into bed with the blonde. She took his hand under the covers.

 **"Get some rest, Barry"** She smirked giving him a peck on the cheek.

 **"Good night, Kara. Get some rest yourself and sorry I woke you up"** he replied as he put his head on the pillow watching her beautiful blue eyes.

* * *

AN: To Wall : If you want more information, i suggest you make an account and we can talk via PM's. Some things i can say some i cannot because they are blatant spoilers. As for how much will be relation building and how much will be action, no clue. I write what comes to me with overarching stories, i can;t tell you that for sure. However, i don't intent to make it just one sided, so more than likely it will be both, to varying degrees. as for the car, if its the one i'm thinking about, as River Song used to say, "spoilers" :D


	6. Hazard

Barry woke up feeling rested and looking at the beautiful blonde angel that somehow over the night had snuck her head onto his chest and slept. She had been right, ever since she dragged him to sleep together a few weeks ago the nightmares had been pretty much gone, except for one night where for some reason her arms spooked him and his reflexes went into overdrive. When he managed to fully wake up he thanked the stars that he was not controlling the vibrational speed of the cuts and it seemed like she was intact. Her pajamas however, the underwear she was wearing and half the bed … were not. Most of the sheets were in pieces just like her attire and he had cut a large gash in the mattress. They just shrugged it off and Kara went and bought a new mattress and some new sheets.

The morning found him looking at the sunshine that was coming into the apartment and thinking about a million different things at once. His mind was racing and thoughts were passing by and gone in less than a second.

 **"At least you didn't murder the bed this time"** Kara opened an eye looking at the speedster.

 **"One time, come on. literally one time"** he raised his hands in a surrender pose.

 **"Mattress murderer"** she quipped getting up. Barry looked at her as she got out of bed and smiled. He got out of bed as well and went to the window. As he did that he thought he saw something speeding in the streets. His eyes managed to catch a glimpse of something but not being fully in his range of view it disappeared in an instant which was saying quite a lot seeing that he could perceive time as standing still if he wanted to.

 **"We're getting called at the DEO. Something has caught their eyes from the multiple murder case that you had evidence from a few weeks ago"** Kara told him as she changed into her Supergirl suit.

 **"All right. Let's see what happened then"** he grabbed her and flashed into the DEO in less time it would take to eat a donut. The two were near their friendly Martian who was in the form of Hank Henshaw and was sitting with his back at them.

 **"Supergirl, Flash. We have a problem. The results on the evidence that we got from the NCPD show that the damage might have been done by someone who has literally drained the victim's cells of their energy"** J`onn told the two.

 **"Can we do anything now? Or you called us to let us know about the desiccation?"** Barry inquired

 **"Actually I wanted a bit of your CSI expertise. We deal with aliens most of the times. You have dealt with metahumans most of your life so that might help. Can you think of someone that would have a power similar to what I described, or could be capable of doing what was done to those corpses?"** He asked the Flash.

 **"The mummification could be the result of several things. What happened, I don't know. It looks like what I used to see in ghost and vampire movies. It does indeed seem like something drained the life out of them"** Barry concluded leaving Hank and Kara to think

 **"Hank, do we know an alien that can do that?"** she asked.

 **"I don't. I'll continue looking. Flash, if you can think of a metahuman that would have this power contact me immediately, even if he is from your earth, it might have a doppelganger here"** the Martian told the speedster.

 **"Will do"** the answer came and Hank returned to his duties leaving the two that went to Winn who was tinkering away at his console.

 **"Winn, do you have a pattern on the attack of those victims?"** Barry asked him

 **"Nothing out of the ordinary I'm afraid, but I can tell you that the attack took place near that bar on 53rd and 2nd, in a back alley. Maybe you can go check it out?"** He told the speedster.

 **"Yeah, that is actually not a bad idea. Coming?"** he motioned toward Kara who was looking at her watch.

 **"No, I have to get an interview with Lena Luthor. Cat has made it clear that she wants it as soon as possible"** She king of frowned saying that but Barry understood.

 **"All right. Winn, does the DEO have "power"** **over the NCPD?"** the speedster asked.

 **"Well we are a federal agency so, we can always override the local law enforcement if needed. Why?"** the techie replied.

 **"Because I am going to miss work and I would like that I don't actually lose my job. Can you send a request to Chief Singer telling him that the DEO requires my services so that he gets off my back and I can survey the crime scene in peace?"** Barry explained.

 **"Yep. Sending the request now. You should probably be at work when the Chief calls"** The speedster nodded and raced out of the DEO follower by Kara who flew back to CatCo to change and then left for her interview with Lena Luthor.

Everything worked as planned. The Chief came to his office and showed him the request and told him to give as much help to the DEO as he could, enabling Barry to get his CSI kit and race toward the alley where the men were attacked. Searching around the crime scene he could not find anything that would point him to the attacker except the fact that a manhole was in the middle of the attack zone. He went down the manhole to the tunnel to find a smidge of purple residue on a wall that was opposite the entrance. He collected a sample and went back to his lab. Taking a look at the sludge he was not surprised to find cell in the residue that were slowly deteriorating. **_"Great, Parasite"_** he thought. The fact that it was that particular metahuman explained why the bodies were in the state they were. Now everything was starting to fall into place and actually made sense for a change. His phone ringed

 **"Barry, Kara needs help, some people are trying to kill Lena Luthor"**

 **"On my way"** he put on the suit and closed his lab exiting the window. He had learned to operate the bracer so he opened the display and followed Kara's signal also opening a line to Winn. When he arrived on the scene he saw Kara get hit by a missile. She was trying to protect the helicopter that Lena was in. The explosion dazed her just enough to have her fall toward the helipad at high speed. Barry was just in time to catch her.

 **"Fancy meeting you here, Supergirl"** he smiled at the blonde

 **"Flash. Those drones are trying to bring down the helicopter"** He told him and through the communicators another voice spoke

 **"There are multiple sightings of drones in the city attacking Civilians"** Winn told the two. The bracer on her hand started to flash yellow.

 **"You take this one and get her helicopter down safe and I'll take the others?"** He asked and Kara nodded. **"Don't get hurt"** he told her as she started to float. His hand started vibrating and he immediately shot a lightning bolt at her. The extra energy made the yellow flashing stop

 **"Thanks, I needed that. The explosion took quite a lot out of me"** She smiled toward him

 **"I know"** she showed her his bracer. **"Cisco tuned my bracer to yours. You can follow my vitals and I can follow yours. Which is why mine was flashing yellow as well"** He grinned and was gone. Kara went back to the drone that started to fire on the helicopter. It managed to hit the rotors and they started smoking but before it could launch another rocket, she heated up the munitions enough to make them blow up. In the next second she was handling the helicopter like it was a cart board box landing it safely on the helipad. Barry was running, Winn monitoring where he was and giving him directions to find the other drones. It was easy for him to blast them out of the sky with lightning, but the last one seemed to be surge protected.

 **"Winn, the last drone seems to be the master. I can't bring it down with lightning"** he spoke.

 **"Well, it might be surge protected, but it is EMP protected?"** the man asked.

 **"I guess I'll see"** Barry told him and prepared another lightning bolt but this time the energy had changed to explode above the target and create an EMP field. **"Nope. EMP shielded as well"** he replied to Winn. That trick didn't work, it didn't even slow the thing down enough to have Barry get out of its range of fire. However the operator made a big mistake. He launched all 4 missiles at the speedster. It was easy for Barry in his slowed perception to change their trajectory and all four went straight back at the drone pulverizing it. Behind him Supergirl came to help but saw that he needed no assistance so instead of helping, she was leaning against a wall watching him work.

 **"Someone's slacking"** He grinned looking at the Girl of steel that was watching him.

 **"You had that. No need for me to get involved"** she smiled toward the speedster **"Thanks for the power up before"** Their friendly banter attracted attention so they split, each to his own job. Barry however after changing went to the DEO with the sample he had.

 **"I found this in a sewer at the site of the attack where those persons got murdered"** He showed Hank the purple goo **"There are cells inside and they are constantly trying to feed. I was lucky to find it in this state, a few more days and the cells would have died and the sludge would have given us nothing"** he went to Winn's console and pulled up a spectral analysis and a DNA profile from his lab at the precinct.

 **"Run that if you please, Mr. Schott"** Hank told him while turning to Barry **"Anything else?"**

 **"Nope. That was all I can find and even that in a sewer. It looked like the crime scene had been deliberately cleaned. But by who? I cannot answer that"** he told the Martian.

 **"The name I got from that DNA profile is Rudy Jones, but he hasn't been seen for a long while. He was put up as a missing person case almost a year ago"** Winn told the two

 **"Well, it's more than we had before Barry went to work so, let's follow that up. Nice work with the detecting, Flash"** Hank told the man who smiled. Barry shook his hand and was out the door, getting some donuts and dropping by Kara's office. She wasn't there however so he left the donuts and ran back to the place where he got the parasite sample. He ran through the sewers looking for clues or at least some more residue, but after managing to follow the semblance of a trail for a few blocks everything disappeared. He decided to go back to the DEO where Winn was waiting.

 **"Barry, remember the explosion on the Venture?"** He asked and the speedster nodded **"We had the ship investigated, well what was left of the ship after you disintegrated the hull. The explosion that downed that craft? It began in one specific seat. The one Lena Luthor was supposed to be on"**

 **"So there is indeed someone who wants to kill her"** a voice came from behind him. It was Kara who had come back to the DEO herself. **"Thanks for the donuts"** she smiled toward him.

 **"You`re welcome, had no idea you went out for lunch so I left you some extras"** Barry replied while looking at the seating chart Winn had on his screen.

 **"I wasn't out for lunch, I was following Lena around discreetly. I thought someone might actually try again while she was going to prepare her speech"** Kara answered **"I was really hungry so those donuts did wonders"** she gave him a bright smile. **"Problem is she still wants to hold that press conference. I'm pretty sure someone will try their luck there. Since it's held in an open space where security cannot keep everyone at bay"**

 **"Then I guess we should be there as plain old us and keep an eye on her, that should work"** Barry offered.

 **"That would be a good idea, but there's a problem. Kara sure, she has a press pass, but you Barry? You'd stick out like a sore thumb"** Winn commented.

 **"I can be Kara's plus one. I mean last I checked there's no penalty for bringing a friend to a press only event"** the speedster commented.

" **I don't think there is. I guess we shall find out. Come on, we have to be there in 15 minutes"** she told him and they both sped away. They changed and reached the plaza in front of the Luthor Corp building. It seemed too quiet. Alex was here too keeping an eye on everyone.

 **"Kara, do me a favor. Can you x ray the building?"** Barry asked her

 **"You feel it too, don't you? Something isn't right"** she looked at him and he nodded. She began her sweep of the surrounding buildings and came up with nothing. **"Barry, I can't see anything in the basement of the Lex Corp Building. It seems that it has lead in the main floor, like someone would be trying to hide something? I knew from Kal that Lex was paranoid so maybe he has something there that he wanted hidden"**

 **"I'll go check it out. You keep an eye on her"** he motioned toward Lena who was coming out of the large structure in front of them. He disappeared from next to her and a flash of lightning started to go through the building. She could barely see him, but the moment that he went underground it all went black.

Barry was searching the basement when he saw something that looked like a large scale bomb attached to one of the support struts. It was clear that the explosive device was supposed to cut the support and let the building fall, from the placement of the support strut it the angle meant that it would have fallen smack dab in the middle of the plaza.

 **"Barry, there are more drones over here. I can hear them"** Kara told him through the communicator, the two had found out that the suits had built in communicators courtesy of Cisco, they were secure and there were only two of them in that world, which made them completely untraceable.

 **"I found a really large bomb here. I'm going to try to disarm it, if not just run it out of the city"** Barry told her

 **"Be careful and don't explode. I'll take care of the drones and Alex will keep Lena safe. Good luck with the bomb"** she told him. Barry went to work, by vibrating his hand he started to cut wires looking along the path of the current which was obvious. He expected backups and redundancies and more often than not professional bombers used a lot of tricks. What he did notice is that the bomb had a green tint so the first thing he thought about was kryptonite. The timer was counting down, there were 2 more minutes until the big explosion.

 **"Barry, I'm done with the drones. How are you with the bomb?"** Kara's voice could be heard from the com.

 **"Stay there and don't come anywhere near this place. The bomb has kryptonite in it. The last thing you need is a shower in the stuff that can kill you. Check the basements of the adjoining buildings. This might not be the only bomb, our assassin might have put a backup plan in place"** Barry told her

 **"Got it. Please take care of yourself, don't do anything stupid"** Supergirl started to go into the basements of the buildings that were around the plaza. Barry made a call. He detached the bomb as fast as he could from the pillar and started running. There was a trigger mechanism as he had expected and the bomb had already started its detonation process. The Flash ran as fast as he could, he could not predict the yield of the bomb, but at least he had to get it out of town. He managed in time, but the shockwave from the blast caught up with him. It put him off balance causing him to fall at high speed breaking his leg and arm and hitting his head, he managed to reset his broken limbs and vibrated to get the bones at least partly mended before the world turned black as he looked up trying to figure out where he was.

 **"You Idiot. Didn't I tell you not to do anything stupid?"** he opened his eyes and Kara was sitting next to him. On the bed next to him there was Alex, seemingly sleeping.

 **"Sorry not sorry, I was right, the bomb had kryptonite. I can't be sure if it was put there just to hurt you, or it had some enhancing effect to the blast. Without a piece to study, I cannot be sure. If you were anywhere near it you would have been hurt way worse than I was"** Barry stood up **"Can you check if my bones have healed?"** he asked. Kara X rayed him and nodded. **"What happened to Alex?"**

 **"The assassin escaped. I wasn't next to her and she shot him but got a bullet to the chest as well"** Kara answered.

 **"Anything broken internally? Or just the bullet"** he inquired

 **"She was reckless, any DEO agent should have a bullet proof vest on. She didn't"** Kara said wincing looking at her.

 **"Did they take the bullet out?"** Barry spoke

 **"No. You weren't out for long, she just got here, the doctor is being brought in and they should be preparing to get her into surgery"** Kara replied **"The bullet is lodged in her lung. She will bleed no matter how you look at it"**

 **"I can do it faster. But I'm going to need your help"** Barry told his blonde friend who looked at him funny

 **"Barry, no offense, but as much as you might have studied the doctor here is the best one I know. I don't want to take chances with her life"** Kara was sad to cut him off

 **"Kara, do you trust me?"** the question was simple yet effective **"I can save her, if she continues bleeding internally like this she will die drowning in her own blood before the doctor gets here"**

 **"What do you need me to do?"** that was all she asked, confirming that she trusted him with her life as well as her closest family.

 **"You see the bullet right ? I'm going to phase it out of her body. You need to direct a pin sized heat vision stream through her skin and cauterize the bleeding. Can you do that ?"** Barry asked the blonde that was breathing to calm herself.

 **"Yes. Tell me when. What happens to the blood that's in her chest cavity already?"** She inquired

 **"It's a small quantity. It will clot and be reabsorbed by the body. If that doesn't happen I'll just phase it back into her blood stream. Get ready"** The blonde nodded and he started to vibrate his hands. He pushed his palm inside her body and touched the bullet which started to do the same, Barry managing to pull it out and reforming it so he could study it later. He looked at Kara which directed through her skin a thin laser beam that cauterized the wound.

 **"This is going to take a lot out of me. I will more than likely faint because my stomach is already grumbling. Don't be scared, it's not something that can threaten my life, it's just exhaustion, so make sure to get some Iv's into me as fast as you can and 20 or so pizzas after I manage to wake up. Hopefully it won't be too long"** Barry told Kara who nodded and then he started vibrating with his hands on Alex's body. There was lightning coming off of him and hitting different places in the room. Kara tried to protect the equipment as best she could so it wouldn't get fried and her sister could be monitored. Alex started to vibrate as well and Kara could see that her vitals were improving. Both bodies continued their impression of a bad video program blur for about 2 minutes and then gently came to a halt causing Barry to fall to the floor.

Kara picked him up and put him into the same bed that he got up from and looked toward Alex. She was breathing normally, before the doctor was even in the DEO, Alex already opened her eyes.

 **"Of all the irresponsible …"** Kara started hugging her **" how could you forget your body armor"**

 **"I know. I know. I'll make sure it doesn't happen again. But how am I awake, I was shot in the chest, I couldn't breathe. Before I blacked out I thought at least 2 weeks to get rid of the pains"** Alex spoke and got up the bed only to find out that she had no sort of pain and the bullet wound had closed into a scar **"Nothing hurts, it's like I was never injured, what happened to me?"**

 **"You can thank Barry for that. After taking a blast to the face he consumed the rest of his energy to pull the bullet out of you. He did something else which healed you, but I don't know what, so you will have to ask him, whenever he wakes up"** Kara answered her sister who was wide eyed. **"The doc was far away, you were bleeding, he said he could help and I trusted him. Now you`re healed and without this in you"** She showed her sister a bullet.

 **"It was John Corben. The international assassin. I managed to hit him in the chest, I don't know how badly because I got myself hit and I fell. But if he wasn't at the scene then that means something else is going on"** Alex told her while thinking how good or bad her aim was. The images that came back from the encounter were fuzzy but it seemed that she did indeed shoot him in the heart.

 **"Are you sure it was John Corben?"** Winn came by to check on the two being surprised that Alex had recovered so quickly

 **"Yes. I know his face and I was tasked at one point to follow a string of murders committed by him. He does not try very hard to hide his identity, however that still doesn't make him easier to track"** Alex managed to respond.

 **"There was no body at the scene. Whoever you shot, they somehow managed to get out of there. I'll pull up the cameras in the plaza and find out"** Winn left them. Kara sat on a chair near the bed where Barry was resting.

 **"I'll go get some IV bags. If this is the same like last time he should wake up when he has enough nutrients in his system"** Alex told her sister, but when she wanted to leave Kara was already back with them. Alex connected them and put them in the speedster's arm the two sitting by the bed waiting for him to wake up. **"I can't believe he was so reckless, risking his life to bring me back"** she commented looking at her sister.

 **"He didn't risk his life. He told me before attempting what he did that in worst case scenario he will more than likely faint because of exhaustion, but that is not life threatening. I think he did that so I wouldn't go ballistic on him after he woke up from his nap. Also more than likely to not make me worry about his health, because he knows I do that even if he doesn't want me to"** Kara told her

 **"I see, you care about him don't you?" she inquired**

 **"More than you think. I also trust him with my life and as you have seen with yours. I wouldn't have let him try anything on you if I thought otherwise and I would have been wrong. You would have probably died of internal injuries until the doctor arrived"** Kara responded. Alex had no idea that the whole thing was that bad, she had taken shots to the chest before and all they ended in were pain when she breathed and a few cracked ribs, when she had her vest on that is.

 **"I had no idea that the situation was that dire. Then I should really thank him when he wakes up. I thought the wound was manageable"** Alex told her sister with surprise

 **"It was pretty bad, I still don't know what he did to heal you. All I saw was him putting his hands on your chest and you two vibrated for a couple of minutes and suddenly you were healthy again and he was on the floor"** Supergirl replied. The two remained by Barry's bedside until two hours later he managed to wake up feeling hungry as hell. Kara had already brought him food leaving him with Alex for a few minutes.

 **"Welcome back, sleepy head"** the blonde smiled at him.

 **"Hey"** he looked toward Alex **"Glad to see you walking around"** he smiled.

 **"I hear I have you to thank you for my speedy recovery. How did you do that?"** Alex asked as Kara helped the speedster get up and took him to the table where the food was. He started to eat and explained between bites making sure his mouth wasn't full when talking.

 **"Phasing the bullet through you is not that hard. After I was left without my personal physician and person who could remove them I learned how to take them out myself. Of course, there were a lot of failures at the beginning, but I got the hang of it eventually"** Barry started being immediately interrupted by Alex.

 **"Your doctor, which was Caitlin wasn't it?"**

 **"Yea. But when she left I had to take care of myself. The second thing, it's just a variation of the way I vibrate to enhance my muscle and bone density to be able to stand one of Kara's hugs. That one promotes advanced healing and regeneration, also gives me access to the molecules in the system I am touching to rearrange them as I see fit. You see, the whole process doesn't take a lot out of me because I have to vibrate the body of who I'm using it on. You have seen me vibrate a bridge, a body would be way less. The fact that I have to keep account of every molecule and cell and where it should be and how is what is draining. My mind works at extremely high speed and with a large volume of information. That is what sapped me of energy"** Barry explained as he was eating.

 **"Whoa"** Kara and Alex were amazed. **"So while you do that you have to keep track of every cell and molecule in the body. What happens if you don't?"** Alex asked.

 **"I can put your lungs in your head or your heart in your throat and that's not even the worse outcome"** Barry said truthfully

 **"How would that not be the worst outcome. That would mean the person would die"** Kara replied.

 **"Simple. That's why I don't try that when in a fight except on myself and maybe small wounds on others. If I get interrupted while I do, I can lose the coherence of the body that I'm vibrating and it can disappear into nothingness. Just like it happened with the hull of the Venture"** he told them **"I can make myself intangible while I heal, so typically nothing can stop me. Losing a piece of skin or a piece of muscle is not that much of a damage either, which is why I can do it with small injuries while not completely safe. But doing that in the middle of a fight on a whole body is irresponsible"** Kara suddenly realized how hard it was for him to heal someone from a large injury and how badly it exhausted him

 **"Thank you for getting my sister back"** she uttered

 **"Yea. Thank you for getting that bullet out. Kara told me how bad it was before you woke up"** Alex smiled at him

 **"No problem. The last time that happened Kara cried for a week. I really didn't want to see that again"** he replied.

 **"Wait, what?"** Alex asked surprised then realized **"Oh, different timeline. What happened if I might ask?"**

 **"You were shot with a Kryptonite bullet. You took one for Kara because someone was trying to kill her. We later found out that it was CADMUS setting a trap for her. Since it was shot from an altitude, the angle made it that it passed through you from your collar bone down through your lung and liver and exited the other side. You were out for a long while, the damage was pretty bad. That was the first time I actually tried this on another person beside me and Kara. I left her sleeping in the corridor and consumed all my energy to try to get you better. As you might imagine, I wasn't an expert at this the first time I tried, so the results were less than optimal. I did manage to fix the damaged lung which improved your breathing, which in turn gave your body the oxygen it needed to start fixing the damage in your liver. It wasn't a complete heal, but at least it stopped Kara from crying"** Barry told them finishing the pizzas on the table at the same time, feeling better after the stunt he had just pulled.

 **"I'm betting it stopped her crying because she was yelling at you"** Alex smirked at the speedster

 **"Of Course. She yelled at me for being irresponsible, putting my life in danger and many other things. She stopped soon after though when she saw that you were better"** Barry smirked looking at Kara who was taken aback by the candor of his statements.

 **"Sure I would yell. You know I don't like when you risk your life. Even if at these points it was warranted, actually no, it was required if you wanted to save her. I couldn't do anything about that, talk about being more powerful than a truck and feeling powerless"** Kara made a grimace

 **"But you did help. You sealed the wound and stopped it from bleeding out"** Barry replied **"I didn't know if you had needed to control your heat vision that precisely before, but I had trust in you and I knew that you had done it, so I took a chance"**

 **"Wait, you knew that I could seriously harm Alex ?"** Kara looked at him annoyed.

 **"Of course. The outcomes could have been, you doing good and closing the bleeder, or you blasting her with full power heat beams in which case I would have phased her so you don't cut her in half. I told you to trust me"** the speedster looked at the blonde who understood. He had it under control even if she didn't help, but he asked for it anyway, making her feel useful and not powerless.

 **"So, why did you ask me in the first place if you had everything figured out from the beginning?"** Kara asked the speedster

 **"The less damage I have to repair the less energy it takes. With your help I managed to advance her healing by a lot and even make the wound scar. If that bleeder had remained, I would have had to close it, take all the blood coming out of it and phase it back into her veins and I would probably have left her to heal herself. There is a limit to what I can do Kara. Considering I just took a Kryptonite bomb blast to the face and my energy was nearly depleted, I could only do so much"** Barry explained

 **"Thank you, Barry"** Alex gave him a large hug. The surprise on his face was definitely visible and when they separated she noticed **"What are you making that face for?"**

 **"Nothing, just surprised, I have already told you how the other Alex behaved most of the time toward me. This is … different, also not warranted. You know I would have helped either way"** he replied. Kara made an inquisitive face while Alex started to laugh.

 **"Actually this is totally warranted. You saved my life, so shut up and take it like a man"** the DEO agent finally managed to speak after she calmed down from laughter.

 **"Come on, let's get you home"** Kara smiled.

 **"Lead the way, girl of steel"** Barry got up as she took his arm. The two walked out of the DEO like two lovebirds with agents as well as Alex looking at them. **_"Now I'm sure this is going to be interesting"_** she told herself chuckling.


	7. Enemy

Kara was at work writing her articles about what had happened with Lena Luthor and the inauguration. She did not want to get the DEO involved so in the end the piece became a thank you to the Flash and Supergirl for saving the day yet again. Barry decided to surprise her and show up at work with her favorite food and some sweets. As the two were chatting in her office and were oblivious to their surroundings someone was watching them from afar. Cat Grant studied the two. From the time she had that interview with the Flash, it was pretty obvious that Kara has some sort of crush or was in love with Barry Allen. She could not confirm that because the only time that she had seen them together was while taking the interview with the speedster and most times Barry would just come to pick her up at work not staying enough for her to get a glimpse into what was happening.

She cared about the girl. It was never said but she considered her to be one of her best assistants and someone she had gotten close to over the time that she worked for her. That was something already unusual, seeing that most of her assistants would quit and go out the door crying at her sometimes over exaggerated whims. Nobody knew, but she did that on purpose, being her assistant meant managing every aspect of her life as the media mogul she was and if the girls weren't capable of withstanding a few whims, how could they answer for anything more. That was not so with Kara, she took her job very seriously even from the first day and Cat noticed that. Over time, even though to the outside she was the same tough nut to crack that she had always been, the requests she had of Kara stopped being exaggerated and the responsibilities that came with the job started mounting. The blonde managed to take care of those as well as she would do any other task and that is something that had Cat impressed.

She had seen her fawn over James, who she saw as a failure from the start. It seemed to her like it was a forced bad plot from a B grade romance movie that either ended badly or got the Golden Raspberry. Of course she had read that right, it all changed when she first saw her with a man called Barry Allen a while back, the one she had thought was the Blur at the time. But that person which seemed to lighten up Kara's face whenever he was around already had someone of his own. She chuckled at the fact that the blonde would think she would not see them while they tried to quietly sneak out of the office.

Barry Allen however returned, somehow looking older and apparently single and Cat saw the way that Kara acted around him. The way they were talking and smiling at each other, the small touches and the laughter, the corny jokes and the fact that he always brought her food even when she wasn't around, lead Cat to believe that her former assistant, now reporter had found someone that she wanted. That lead her to think about her own life. She had everything she had ever desired. Her strong personality made her fight for her goals and with failures along the way made her achieve those goals. There was a time in her life where she thought about having done everything and the fact that there was nothing to be done, but seeing Kara with Barry made her realize that it wasn't true. There were a lot of things she could still do, expand her horizons, travel the world and look for adventure.

The problem was that she had to leave someone in her place. Someone she trusted that would not bring the company to bankruptcy and she would have something to come back to. She thought about James Olsen, he had experience at being a reporter but nothing more, no business, no anything. Furthermore his beef with Kara might mean that if he remained in charge, she might think about leaving. There was only one logical choice but it was risky. If she let Kara in charge just to run the company with the help of all her lawyers and accountants to do the work for her, she could come back and someone else could have staged a hostile takeover and she would lose everything. It was a gamble, she did not know Barry Allen that well. If he had any sort of business experience then he would most certainly help her, if he didn't, leaving Kara in charge would be about the same as throwing CatCo to the sharks. After helping her to get back with Adam, Cat started to regard Kara more of like a daughter than an assistant. She knew what she was capable of, but leaving the whole company in her hands so soon might prove a challenge that she could not handle. She decided to keep an eye on the two a bit more then make her decision whichever it might be. Cat got to where she was from scratch, even if somehow CatCo disappeared he had the trust and the influence to get back on her feet if needed. She left the two and went back to her office thinking about what was the best course of action.

Meanwhile Kara and Barry finished their lunch and their talks when an explosion was heard downtown. Winn had told them that apparently John Corben was on the streets causing chaos. The two were on the scene in a matter of minutes.

 **"Ah, Supergirl, welcome, welcome. I see you have brought a friend"** Corben grinned throwing a manhole cover toward the two.

 **"Corben. You were behind the attacks at L Corp. You shot someone dear to me and for that you are going to pay"** Kara rushed at him and punched him straight in the face only to remain surprised when instead of his face her punch connected with his arm which stopped her in her tracks.

 **"Not so fast. Call me Metallo. I'm not as vulnerable as you think now"** the glow on his chest was apparent now and Kara started to feel dizzy **"This little rock which is powering my new heart, because I lost my old one, is something you should know very well"** He smirked and punched Supergirl into the nearest wall. Barry was not pleased, he ran back a few miles and with a little bit of rage from the fact that Kara was hurt he accelerated to Mach 10 and hit the villain straight in the face. The force of the punch should have thrown him like a rag doll, instead he took the punch quite well, the force only pushing him back and making marks in the asphalt where his feet were. Barry was at Kara's side in an instant.

 **"You all right?"** he asked her

 **"I should be"** she looked at the power gauge on her bracer that was now flashing yellow. **"The problem is I can't get near him, he is powerful and with me losing my strength I'm literally no match for the guy"** Corben however did not let them continue. A barrage of kryptonite blasts that were being put out by the strange device in his chest came at them. Barry did not know what kind of energy pulses they were, but he knew that the radiation would not harm him. So he took one of them in the chest only to figure out that the force of the blasts was large enough even without the Kryptonite charge. Before he could recover a few of the beams hit Kara and his bracer started flashing red.

 **"Not even the great Flash can save you now, Supergirl"** Corben muttered grabbing Kara and punching her in the face so hard that he split her lip. The force of the punch threw her several feet back and she was lying down on the sidewalk in a small crater. Barry threw lightning bolts at him but the plate he had on his device managed to redirect that energy into more blasts that were going straight at Kara. **"Hah, is that all you can do? I guess running is your forte"** Corben laughed in his face. Barry was angry his eyes flashed lightning and he started to run around the villain. The force of the updraft that he was creating gave birth to a small tornado that was sucking the air from around Corben. The lack of air didn't seem to faze him, but the air funnel lifted him up the ground just enough for Barry to hit him with another supersonic punch sending him flying over a few hundred meters and creating himself a small crater where he landed. He could see now why the man was so powerful, he was not a man at all. The skin color was taken off by the impact of the punch and what was left behind was just metal. He was a robot, powered by Kryptonite. His bracer was flashing red and the Kara's vitals were beginning to be erratic. He made a conscience call and instead of following Metallo he gently took Kara into his arms, ignoring the flashes that were going on around them and sped to the DEO.

 **"What happened to her?"** Winn asked when he saw the two coming in with Kara visibly wounded.

 **"Corben isn't himself anymore. Someone turned him into a robot that is powered by kryptonite. The blasts he sent out did this to Kara. Do we have any way to figure out how badly her system is affected?"** Barry asked.

 **"No, the tech in her suit wasn't made by us. The only people that would know that are Barry and Caitlin and maybe Cisco"** Winn told them.

 **"And I can't cross dimensions to talk to them. Damn it"** Barry commented annoyed that he had lost the power to help the person which at this time he considered the most important in his life.

 **"She has a communicator in her suit that can connect her to them. I can patch you in and you can talk to them if you want"** Winn told him and he nodded. After a couple of minutes the line was open. A voice could be heard from the other side.

 **"Hello, Kara, is everything all right?"** It was Caitlin, he could recognize her voice anywhere.

 **"Caitlin, it's Barry. Well, Menace. Kara is badly hurt, we were wondering if you could help. You two made the sensors that scanned the level of energy stored in her cells?"** Barry asked.

 **"Yes. What happened to her?"** Caitlin's Barry asked. The two were on speaker and a gasp made him aware that Cisco was listening in too.

 **"You know there's a substance that can hurt her. She got hit with an energy blast generated by that substance, she is now unconscious and even if we have her under the solar lamps her power level does not seem to rise. I think the blast might have poisoned her"** Barry told the persons listening.

 **"Do you know her genetic and cellular structure?"** Caitlin asked.

 **"Yes, by heart. I studied that back … where I came from. Why?"** the reply came.

 **"Take her belt. Press it and it will create a breach. Come over and we'll explain. Get a sample of the substance that can harm her. We will destroy it after we're done"** The voice came and the call closed. Barry did exactly as instructed and soon a large blue swirling vortex was opened in the open space in front of the medical bay Kara was in. Hank was listening, without needing to ask for approval he brought the speedster a small square box made out of lead which held a shard of Kryptonite.

 **"Take care of her, I'll be right back"** Barry told Winn and Alex who arrived shortly after she heard that her sister was hurt. They nodded and he stepped through the breach in his Flash costume. In a few seconds he was back in a place that was too familiar to him. The Cortex at STAR Labs. As he had imagined the three were waiting for him.

 **"Welcome back, Barry"** Caitlin smiled at him with Cisco giving him a hug and the other Barry shook his hand.

 **"Since we're the same people, while I'm here call me Menace. I have no more animosity for that name and it will help us distinguish between me and … well ... me"** he smiled at the couple that were holding hands.

 **"Ok, Menace it is. What happened to Kara?"** Barry asked his double.

 **"This is a piece of Kryptonite. It hurts her pretty badly. Seeing that you have the plans for the power sensors here, I thought you could build one that would let us know about the levels of this radiation in her system and maybe a way to counteract it"** Menace told them. The couple heard quite clearly at how worried he was.

 **"We cannot do anything here sadly, the piece is vibrating on another frequency which would bust all our calculation on ways to counteract it. What we can do, is give you the plans for the sensors, the info on how her cells react to sunlight and to kryptonite which the sample we have we will expose in here. With that information you should be able to build something yourself to track the poisoning"** Caitlin replied looking at him rather upset that they couldn't really do much except letting Kara's life in the hands of the speedster.

 **"Don't give me the plans. I'll just read them and remember. I don't want anything that can harm or otherwise offer too much information about Kara to the DEO. I trust only a few people from there and I don't know what would happen if that information got out into the world"** Menace replied making the three pull a surprised face, but they understood. While Cisco showed him the plans, Barry and Caitlin got to work and produced a series of data records from exposing the few cells they had of Kara's to the radiation of the green rock. The result wasn't at all good. Her cells were reservoirs that held solar power as they initially detected, the radiation not only almost depowered her cells, but almost destroyed them as well.

 **"See this?"** Caitlin showed Menace the results. **"As long as she has power kryptonite is basically a drain on her system. It affects her nervous system too. The problem is when her power is out the radiation begins to slowly damage her cells, making it so that they can't hold that much energy in one go as they once could"** Barry continued.

 **"I suspect that if she was being exposed to this sort of radiation for long, not only she would lose her powers, but her cells would start to degenerate making her seriously sick"**

 **"So did you find any way to cure her of the radiation poisoning?"** Menace asked the two scientists

 **"No, it is the same as nuclear radiation affects human beings. Up until a point there are shots that will protect you and have your body eliminate it. But after that point, all you can hope for is a swift death, because there is nothing that can be done. However in her case, as long as she has power she will continue to push the harmful radiation out of her system until she is cured"** Caitlin showed him what happened to her cells when exposed to Kryptonite as well as sunlight.

 **"I have another way of charging her, not only the sun. I managed to change my lightning bolts to be compatible with the energy her body needs. I can keep her charged up even if the energy dissipates because of the poison"** Menace replied

 **"Just like my lightning bolts charge Caitlin's ice powers"** Barry smiled

 **"They do?"** Menace looked surprised **"If you don't have to change anything about them must mean that the lightning that hit you must have made you compatible. That must be something"** Older Barry commented **"Do you want me to leave this shard with you?"**

 **"No, take it back. In case Kara is badly hurt or you need to keep her safe, this universe is the best option and we don't want to have stuff here that can harm her. You understand"** Caitlin told him.

 **"All right. Thank you for the help. I'm going back to see what I can do"** Menace told his friends as he opened another breach.

 **"Here"** Cisco came to him and put a piece of tech under the shield of his suit. **"So you don't have to leave Kara keeping her dress up every time you want to come visit. It's a breach generator just like we gave her, also now you can talk to us as well"**

 **"Thank you, Cisco and thank you two as well. Take care of yourselves"** the speedster told his friends

 **"No problem. Kara is a good friend and we will always do what we can to help. Call us if there is something else you might need, even if just technical help, we'll be here"** Barry told his double. Caitlin and Cisco nodded in approval. He stepped through the breach ending up back in the DEO where Alex and Winn were looking over Kara.

As soon as he got back, the bracer was flashing red and the bar at the bottom was nearing depletion. The sun lamps were not doing a great job at charging her. He went to her and vibrated his hands creating two bolts and touched her chest. The shock made her jump like she was electrocuted, but the readout of her power level returned to over 50%. That would give him enough time to come up with something to monitor the poisoning in her system.

 **"Winn, I remember her saying about her aunt having some sort of anti-Kryptonite tech?"** Barry asked him

 **"Yes, they did. I'm going to ask Hank where they put it. In the meanwhile is there anything I can do to help?"** he replied.

 **"Yes. I'm going to draw up some plans for you. If you could build what I draw up it would be wonderful, even if it takes you a bit. After you do that, destroy the plans"** He replied making Winn and Alex wide eyed **"Plans from another world that can read into Kara's cells do not have a place here. The only place those will be stored is in my head and nowhere else. I do not want someone to get their hands on them and reverse engineer a way out of them to hurt her. Am I making myself clear?"** his tone of voice was frighteningly final, the techie and the sister did not argue at all. Barry drew up the plans for Winn and watched him as he worked making sure no DEO agent would come anywhere near him while he built the sensor. He took the liberty of shorting all the cameras that were in the room as well, as a precaution.

 **"Alex, I'm going to need your help. Since you're a bio engineer much like Caitlin is"** Barry told the agent that was watching over her sister.

 **"Sure, anything I can do"** she got up and followed Barry into the lab.

After a few hours of work, Alex and Barry managed to come up with the precise frequency and trace amount of recognizable radiation that Kryptonite put out. In essence, the green rock could be followed around with a Geiger counter since it was slightly radioactive, but what they were working on was a way to determine how it affected Kara more than a normal human and what the levels of that precise radiation were in her system. Winn came through, he managed to build a small version of the sensor which was then calibrated to detect what the two discovered earlier. Of course, Alex deleted all the research from the computers, Barry showing her that he could reproduce that research from memory anytime it would be needed. Winn tinkered with the belt buckle on Kara's suit and found a way to integrate that sensor into the data network that was sending statistics to the bracers. While this was going on, Barry kept charging Kara with lightning. The solar bed was barely keeping her power level but it was still good enough to give him time to work. When Winn finished that he started to work on the anti-Kryptonite tech that had been provided hoping to make it work. Barry was monitoring Kara with Alex by his side.

 **"If this sensor is correct, almost 15 % of the radiation that she has in her is from Kryptonite. Those blasts must have affected her more than I thought"** Barry commented looking at Alex who was worried.

 **"That is a lot"** She sighed **"How much do you think it will take her system to wake up from the shock?"** He looked at her strangely **"What? It was obvious you learned medicine from somewhere, I'm a bioengineer not a doctor"**

 **"Let me charge her up to max and see how much it takes for her to eliminate 1%. After that I can probably come up with a timeframe in which she will wake up"** Barry shocked Kara a couple of time more and the gauge on his bracer was full. In less than 5 minutes, the 1% they were waiting for to fade disappeared. **"I see, so the more energy she has the faster her body can eliminate the harmful radiation. That is good to know"** Barry made a mental note with Alex smiling.

 **"You would do everything for her to not get hurt wouldn't you"** She said drawing a conclusion that was pretty much obvious at this point.

 **"Yes, Alex. I would. Probably more than you even. I mean that without offense"** The speedster stated looking at the readout of Kara's vitals.

 **"None taken. Until now I had no idea how Kara could trust you with her life or with mine. I think you two have talked much more than she let on. Now I understand why. That time when you said it would be impossible to run I looked at it as being said in jest. Now I know that isn't true at all. Thank you for taking care of her. She might be the strongest woman in the universe, but she needs help just like anyone else"** Alex spoke making clear to Barry that she knew what she was talking about. He wasn't in Kara's life for that long, but she had been there since the time she arrived on Earth, it would make sense that she knew a lot more about Kara than he did. Even with the extra 5 years he had from his timeline.

 **"And I'll be there to help. If something happens and I'm not then you'll be there. So I guess there's nothing to worry"** the speedster smiled and pointed at his bracer showing two more percent had gone down from the time they started speaking.

 **"I guess not. Is there anything else you put in that sensor? I managed to look at the plans and I saw that the detection system worked in a range that was for her and outside as well"** Alex inquired

 **"So you`re only a bio engineer, huh? The tech that I drew up was pretty complicated. It would require some knowledge to see that, but yes, you are right. The display will materialize on her suit and on mine and flash a certain color if her sensor detects any sort of radiation of any sort of Kryptonite. Using the base that we managed to get out for radiation of the green sort and remembering the differences that I know for the other sorts that might pop up, I programmed 5 frequencies into her sensor which will make the display flash. Cisco showed me how to reprogram the code for it to do what I want. The first part will always be red, as in danger and the second part will flash another color, according to the frequencies that I programmed. Green, red, gold, blue or black"** Barry told Alex which was listening with interest

 **"These are types that have shown up in your timeline, haven't they"** she asked.

 **"Yes. They all have different effects with the worst of them being black. Kara has told me that Maxwell Lord has been playing around with Kryptonite and in my timeline, he was coopted by CADMUS to weaponized them against Superman and her"**

 **"Even if they might not appear here. What do they do?"** she inquired.

 **"Black splits them into 2 personas, good and evil. Whoever wins gets to have control. Blue cancels their powers as long as they are around it, gold removes their powers completely. That's what I know"** Barry told the agent who made a mental note herself about the dangers of the rocks from outer space as well as the synthesized versions

 **"I had no idea Max Lord could be such an ass"** she said visibly annoyed.

 **"The order in which they were found back then will give me an idea of what to expect. It might not be the same because it's not the same time stream, but if one of those appears, I might just slice Max Lord into small pieces and feed him to the dogs"** He said with a dark steel look in his green eyes and with a voice so cold and final in its tone that actually scared the veteran DEO agent.

 **"Or we can lock him up in the DEO headquarters and never let him see the light of day"** she tried to offer an alternative

 **"We did that back in my time. He has connections. Cadmus almost blew up one of the DEO headquarters to get him out. There was significant loss of life that day, some people which were my friends were among them. I do not want a repeat of any of that"** Barry said cringing. Kara was awake, but she didn't open her eyes. She was listening in on the conversation that was going on. She knew that this Barry had killed, but she had no idea that he was ready to shed his no kill policy to keep her safe.

 **"You know that will upset Kara, right? She has always had a no kill policy on people. Aliens, not so much since those usually come at her to kill her anyway"** Alex tried to make a point.

 **"I will always try to find alternatives to killing. I promised that to her and I fully intend to keep that promise to the best of my abilities. That is as long as someone doesn't try to kill her. However, if there is no alternative to be found, I would rather have Kara mad at me and alive, rather than happy with me and dead. I cannot resurrect the departed. But I also do not want Kara to kill anyone. She is the one that helps me keep my darkness away. Killing… changes you. I will kill if she asks it of me, just so that she doesn't have to. She is the light that keeps me out of the dark, if she falls, so do I"** Barry told Alex quite bluntly. Kara smiled in her mind. She had a better picture what she meant for the speedster now. This discussion also offered her more insight on what kind of person he was. She knew by this that if he ever decided to kill someone it was after they had exhausted all the possibilities he had to make that final decision. It made her happy that Barry had in mind to keep the promise he made her anyway he could and only break it when there was no other choice. She was ok with that. She felt his hand in hers and gently tightened her grip to let him know that she was awake. Barry immediately picked up on it.

 **"Our sleeping princess is awake"** he smiled toward Alex while he looked at the indicator. She had less than 5% left in her system and her vitals were going strong. **"Hey you"** he smiled toward the blonde that opened her eyes.

 **"Welcome back, we thought we lost you there for a moment"** Alex gave her sister a hug.

 **"What happened. I remember taking 3 blasts of that green ray and after that, nothing"** She told the two getting out of bed effortlessly. She looked at her display and saw that she was at full power, something that would be strange since she knew how the Kryptonite affected her **"How am I at full power, after something like that I should be almost drained. Last time it happened it took me a week in the solar bed to recover"**

 **"Barry Allen, Kryptonian recharger, at your service"** the speedster stood up and took a bow making both women laugh

 **"Why would you do that? When I'm poisoned with that radiation my cells lose their charge. It would have been pointless for you to keep recharging me"** she said surprised. Barry told her about going to the other earth and getting Barry, Caitlin and Cisco in on the whole thing, how He and Alex managed to come up with a way to read the radiation in her system and how Winn built the sensor he needed.

 **"The sensors showed us that even if you got drained, the more power your body had the faster it could get rid of the radiation that was in it. So I kept you at full power until your body got better. That's the whole story"** Barry told the blonde who was looking at him wide eyed. Alex smiled looking at her.

 **"How did you go see the other Barry and Caitlin?"** she asked.

 **"I kind of borrowed your belt buckle. But since I was there for a little bit, Cisco made me a breach generator that's under my shield. In case something happens I don't have to take your skirt along for the ride"** the speedster started to laugh **"I would look ridiculous in a skirt"**

 **"What about Metallo?"** Supergirl was interested in finding out what happened to the man that attacked them

 **"He disappeared. I didn't pursue him as I had more important things to do"** Barry commented bluntly making Kara blush hard.

 **"I'm sure we will see him again. Winn is working on a way to counteract the kryptonite blasts he was putting out"** Alex interjected in the conversation.

 **"I'm hungry"** Kara suddenly said covering the sound of her grumbling stomach. Barry was up and almost ready to run when she put a hand on his shoulder **"No, you did enough for one day, I'm guessing that keeping me charged wasn't easy. I'm going"** she said almost pushing down in the chair to rest.

 **"Get me a coffee and a pizza will you?"** Alex asked her sister who soon left flying out of the DEO. **"Is she all right?"** she turned to the speedster who was reading his arm display.

 **"Yes, the moment she awoke her system started dropping the radiation even faster. She is fine now"** Barry replied putting Alex at ease. She didn't want her sister running around town still poisoned with Kryptonite. When Kara returned the two were looking at what Winn started to fix. It was a small shield like object that was supposed to be able to absorb the blasts. He was not sure if it would work. Barry at least hoped that it would deflect them since the form it had he could take one and use it as a shield to redirect the attacks.

They all ate including Winn who had forgotten that he was human and was working all day. The man was happy to see Kara up and around and thanked Barry for the amount of effort he put into finding a way to help her. The reply was obvious, Kara and Alex knew by now what Barry was capable of doing to keep the blonde alien safe. With no sign of Metallo or the Parasite which Barry had asked Winn to track they decided to call it a day and just head home.


	8. Ghost

Kara knew that the amount of food she brought and also shared was not enough to get Barry his full energy level returned, so on the way back they stopped at a grocery store. She wanted to cook something for him that would express her gratitude for getting her away from the thing that could kill her. Barry told her it wasn't needed, but she insisted. It was something that she wanted to do for him, for a reason that was still not well determined. It was quaint for Kara. For all the people she had had crushes on before, the ones she wanted to be with, which were not many by any count, she never had this urge to cook for. Maybe it was the fact that she never lived with any of them, or even a bit more, she never slept with any of them. As they got home, Barry changed into his usual attire, black shorts and a Supergirl t shirt. That seemed strange for Kara since he usually stayed shirtless in the house, thing which, much to her surprise, didn't bother her at all. The changed into shorts with a tank top and put an apron over the clothes.

 **"What did you want to make?"** Barry asked moving around her kitchen

 **"Nothing fancy, just some pot roast"** she smiled at him

 **"I always wondered, I know you can heat liquids with your heat vision, but I never asked the other Kara if she could actually fry stuff with it"** the speedster threw the blonde a grin.

 **"Barry, I am not an oven. I'm pretty sure I would char any type of food that I try to cook with my heat vision"** She made a straight face.

 **"I don't know, Kara, you do look pretty hot with that apron and all"** Barry grinned giving her butterflies in her stomach

 **"Oh shut up, you charmer. I'm glad you can't hop dimensions, I don't want you being chased by another 30 girls in a skirt that can fly"** She grinned.

 **"Even if I could, I would probably just jump to Barry and Caitlin's dimension"** he got up and got close to her holding her by the waist **"Why would I want to get another 30 girls in a skirt from other dimensions when the one I want is right in front of me?"** he smirked prompting Kara to turn around and kiss him hard. As they separated from the kiss they looked in each other's eyes and Kara saw that the shadow that was always looming there since the first time they met was no longer there. Barry seemed genuinely happy and that made her happy.

 **"Good answer, you old goat"** she started to laugh **"now you should let me at least start to cook"**

 **"Hey, never call me old, toddler of steel"** for the first time since they met Barry was sure enough of himself to pinch her behind. Of course she didn't feel any pain but she giggled nonetheless throwing him a grin at the nickname. **"And who said you'd be cooking alone. Tell me what you want done and I'll help. At normal speed. You know I enjoy spending time with you"**

 **"Ok, you can help"** she answered giving him some of the groceries to wash, clean and cut. Halfway through their cooking Alex dropped in unannounced to get some of her clothes. The two were busy cooking so they left her to her devices. Kara did ask if she wanted to stay for dinner but she refused saying she had a previous engagement. While she was looking for clothes she quietly observed the two that were doing their job at normal speed. **_"This is so out of this world. An interdimensional speedster that is the same person she had a crush on, but older, shows up and it didn't even take a few weeks and they are cooking together. This whole thing looks so … domestic, it's like these two aren't roommates, more like this house is their home and they are acting like it as well"_** she told herself looking at Barry pass near Kara to wash some tomatoes and giving her a kiss on the cheek. She had been with her sister all her life, she never teased boys and the ones that wanted to get in her good graces she usually ignored. The only exception was James, but she had a crush on him and that didn't end swimmingly. She remembered that time when Winn confessed and all she could do is just tell him that she wanted a friend, prompting the man to back down and almost losing their friendship. With Barry she was different, more bubbly and cheerful that she had ever been, it was like happiness was oozing from every pore, she teased him and played around with him something that was highly unusual for her shy persona.

 **"I'm out. Have fun you two"** She told them

 **"What has gotten you so chipper? Do you by any chance have a date?"** Barry threw a curve ball her way

 **"I might. I do have a life you know"** she replied smirking at the speedster

 **"You do? I thought your life was to be at the DEO"** Kara chipped in making Alex cringe a bit.

 **"Yeah, I do. Later"** She grinned the two that waved good bye and exited the apartment.

 **"A date huh. I'm glad for her. It's been a long time since she went out. Must be probably because she thought she was hiding her sexual preferences from us"** the blonde spoke while taking care of the last of the ingredients.

 **"Yeah, I know she's gay. Back in my time she tried to hide it but failed miserably when she kind of had a crush on an acquaintance of Oliver"** Barry laughed **"Well actually more like one of his Ex-Girlfriends"** that line made Kara even more interested in what he had to say.

 **"Say what now?"** Kara looked at him strangely

 **"You met Oliver I take it. Did you meet Sara Lance and her sister Laurel?"** Barry asked her.

 **"No I don't believe I did. I met Felicity, Thea and Curtis. Also Diggle and Lyla. But beyond that, no"** she answered remembering her initial trip to Star City to help Oliver.

 **"Well, somehow those two were both his girlfriends at one point. Alex from my time had a real crush on Sara"** Barry replied. **"I could understand why, I mean Sara was beautiful, smart and she had training from the League of Assassins. Total badass, even more than your sister"**

 **"I see, which would make perfect sense as to why Alex would fall for her and for you to find out she likes women"** Kara concluded while she put everything in the oven to get ready.

 **"Pretty much. Oh. I forgot to tell you. The sensor that measured the kryptonite levels in your system also works outside. It has a range of 20 meters and the display will flash red when it detects it. The secondary part of the display will turn the color of the variant of kryptonite that it detected"** Barry told the blonde

 **"You mean the ones that you know from your time?"** Kara asked while checking on the oven.

 **"Yes. That range means you won't be close enough to be affected by it and the larger the piece of rock the farther away it can be detected. I thought you should get a warning at least to stay away"** the speedster smiled at the blonde who gave him a hug and a kiss.

 **"Thank you, that should help me immensely. Now I just go do what I can for the people and more often than not I fell in traps that were designed to have that rock around to weaken me. Now with this I will know when something is up"** her face was all a large smile. She remembered what she said back when the other Barry put the power meter in her suit and chuckled to herself. **_"I was right. He does know what I want and what I don't. But more than that, he knows what will help me and what will be useless as well"_**

 **"You are most welcome"** He quipped turning to check on the food. Barry's communicator started to ring and he picked it up. It was himself from the other universe

 **"It's been a bit since you came over. Did you manage to make Kara better ?"** the voice asked. Kara picked up her communicator as well and answered

 **"Yes, he did. Thank you for the help you extended to him"** Kara replied.

 **"Of course, after all he is Barry and you are our friend"** Caitlin replied from the other end of the line.

 **"Good. That's what we wanted to hear. IF you want a place to store plans and stuff so that they aren't stolen from your world you can come here and leave them in our archive"** Barry told Menace.

 **"Yeah, I was thinking of doing that, but at a later date. Me and Kara are about to sit down and eat so ... we'll catch you later?"** Menace replied.

 **"Catch you later, have a nice meal"** Caitlin replied closing the line. Kara could swear she heard chuckling before the line was down. After a while of just talking the two checked on the food which was ready. The quantity was indeed spectacular, Kara has used a large pan with a lot of ingredients. Of course for a normal human there were at least 14 pieces that would amount to a normal lunch, but to Barry and Kara was just a normal dinner. After they finished eating instead of deciding to watch a movie like always they went straight to sleep after food their power levels had been improved but they were still tired and yawning so they thought turning in was the best solution.

Kara woke up a bit earlier than Barry the next morning and as usual started making coffee and opened up the TV. News headline was interesting as well as the picture. **"National City's new super powered couple?"** the news read over a picture of Barry holding Kara after she was hit. She face palmed hard at the way that this was going to reflect into her going at work.

 **"That is going to be a pain in the ass isn't it?"** Kara saw Barry standing in the doorway in his shorts looking at the TV and scratching the back of his head.

 **"Yea. I bet that Cat Grant will have me chase Supergirl and Flash around town to get a statement. Which of course I can't get. Sometimes I hate speaking about myself in the third person"** Kara replied with a grimace.

 **"What happens if you don't get Ms. Grant what she asks for?"** Barry asked quite bluntly.

 **"Then I can probably lose my job. Like any other reporter that can't get a story at the request of his boss"** Kara frowned. She did like being in the middle of the action although she had started giving some thought to what Barry had told her about them both going into research. The prospect was not better, except the fact that she could spend all day with Barry doing something together was enough of a balance breaker to get her to think about it.

 **"Then I guess you will have to get a statement from both of the heroes that protect National City. Now, what would that statement be, that is the problem"** Barry looked at her. She understood what the speedster was asking, she knew the answer at the drop of a hat.

 **"Well I don't know, the fact that you saved me doesn't really imply anything, out there you are my partner, it would be kind of strange if you wouldn't have done so"** She managed to say while looking at Barry.

 **"You know that the newspapers always look for the sensational. They wouldn't get any news from the fact that the Flash saved Supergirl. It's more sensational if the fact that I saved you means something more between you and me"** The speedster replied smiling at her. **"Of course there is more between you and me that is going on, we are dating, are we not? However, that doesn't mean everyone needs to find out about it"**

 **"Yes, Barry we are dating. We might tell everyone, else it's not like I care, you know very well that I have no problem being seen with you. Even if to the world our super hero personas aren't. But there are people that know Kara Danvers and Barry Allen, the fact that Supergirl and the Flash are dating might spark some suspicions between the people that know us"** Kara smiled at him beautifully telling him straight what the two were. Barry smiled at her widely when she said that.

 **"Then how about we settle this. That way you have something to write about and you keep your job"** The speedster smiled **"What do we tell the official Supergirl Correspondent of CatCo, Supergirl? Before that I should mention something though. Remember I gave Cat Grant an interview?"**

 **"Yes, that time with the duplicate you that was talking to me. The first time you showed me you could split yourself into two"** she replied.

 **"When she made a comment about who I liked, as the Flash I kind of told her that the only thing she'll get out of me was that she is blonde and she flies. Which was obvious, but not in so many words"** Barry snickered.

 **"You seriously told Cat Grant that, the, what was it, fourth day you were here?"** Kara could not believe her ears. **"You did, didn't you? You planned this you trickster. Well then I guess that there's one way out of this"** she grinned.

 **"Before you say what I think you are trying to say, remember I have been here a short while. Are you really going to say that we are dating after me being in town only what ... a few weeks?"** He told her

 **"Why not, there is such a thing as two people connecting instantly, I can believe it"** she replied.

 **"You might be right, but let's keep that for ourselves, for now"** Barry quipped **"As for the pictures that are going around, just tell them it is perfectly normal for the Flash to take care of his partner. That should close their mouths, us dating or not. I don't see anything weird that two superheroes would partner up seeing that they are alone in the same town"** Kara was impressed, it seemed that the speedster was used to dealing with reporters .

 **"That's good. It should be just enough to have something to write about and me keeping my job"** Kara replied. **"Nothing about Flash and Supergirl dating. Just out of curiosity, don't we have to deny that so they don't get ideas?"**

 **"We don't have to deny anything, the thing is with the press there are some things to set straight and some things to leave in the air. Not saying anything about us dating is leaving them in the air. They can imagine whatever they want. For the pictures however, which are evidence, a clear response is required. Besides, at least if I know the media, the more we deny it the more they think it's true"** the speedster smiled

 **"I'm surprised at you, Barry. You seem to know your way around dealing with the media. That should be enough. I should get to work so I'm not late. The Supergirl Correspondent still has a job to do, which is writing about herself"** Kara chuckled, looked at the clock and sped into her work clothes. The speedster noticed that ever since he was around her work clothes weren't so bland anymore. Nothing showy or too sexy, but not the same weird sweaters and gloppy pants. Today for example she was wearing a black and white striped dress that was hugging her curves with her hair put up in a bun.

 **"Don't you think if you look too sexy at work someone might peg you for Supergirl?"** Barry grinned making Kara blush intensely

 **"I doubt anyone will notice. You know I blend in very well. Besides, I'm not even on the radar, there are some women that everyone wants"** Kara joked.

 **"Very nice. That way I get to have you all to myself"** Barry had a pervy smile on his face. She chuckled and, kissing him goodbye, took off toward CatCo. Ever since Cisco managed to put her suit in the necklace she was wearing, she could be able to wear normal attire not worrying that it might show the suit underneath, which was a nice change from the old jeans and heavy shirts she usually wore.

She went into her office and got to work. Somewhere along the way a figure entered looking sternly at her. It took her a bit to notice Cat Grant that came in the room with a paper in her hand.

 **"Good morning, Ms. Grant. What can I do for you?"** Kara asked offering her boss a place on the couch that was in her small office.

 **"Did you see this?"** Cat showed her the picture that was on the cover of the paper. Flash holding Supergirl in his arms.

 **"I did, I'm way ahead of you, Ms. Grant. I asked Supergirl for a statement this morning and luckily I got one, from her and the Flash"** Kara smiled **"I'm writing the article right now"** Cat was surprised, it usually took a few days for Kara to manage to get some sort of dismissal or approval from the heroine

 **"What did you find out?"** Cat asked visibly interested in what Kara had to write.

 **"Not much, but I did get a dismissal. What the papers say apparently is not true, or even if it is the two didn't want to acknowledge it. They did however tell me that what the Flash did for Supergirl is normal. They are partners now apparently and they help each other"** Kara told Cat which was really interested about the heroes' love life.

 **"Is that all?"** the media mogul was surprised just to hear that the two weren't together.

 **"Nothing more than that. They didn't confirm or deny the fact that they might be together. Are you interested in their love life?"** Kara smirked at the media mogul

 **"Of Course I am. Not for the paper but for myself, Flash already told me he has a thing for Supergirl. In not so many words, but still"** Cat smirked back she noticed that Kara got a text which made her face light up **"Barry wants to get lunch?"**

 **"Yes, how did you …"** she asked with wide eyes but not managing to finish

 **"I am pretty observant as you might know. You two look good together, I managed to see a little of you interacting when the Flash gave me his interview"** Cat replied **"You have a thing for him don't you?"** Kara decided it was better to not say anything **"Of course you do, just like he does for you, that is pretty obvious from the whole 10 minutes I looked at you two talking"**

 **"I'll have this article ready for the evening edition like always"** Kara told her while resuming her work trying to avoid that discussion with her boss. Cat picked up on that quite soon and gave her a break. If she wanted to grill her about Barry she could, but it seemed like it would be useless at this point.

 **"Go get lunch with Barry. You finally managed to meet someone who you like and who likes you. The article can wait, we can run it in the morning edition, if you don't finish. Trust me, once you find someone you truly want to be with it's a good idea not to let them go"** Cat told her and left her office to go to an appointment. Kara was surprised, she knew Cat Grant as a strong woman who always got what she wanted. It was a bit strange to hear her give advice about anything to anyone, although in her case this was not the first thing it had happened. Back when the flop with James happened, Cat helped her come to her senses and think about looking for something else. As hard boiled and bitchy other people found the media mogul, for Kara she was probably closer to a mother and a confidant above anything. Even so, Kara did not trust her enough to keep her secret to herself, maybe one day she would, but not now. She left by the usual means going straight to the NCPD. She scanned the lab and confirmed that nobody was coming or already there except him and she flew through the window to the locked changing into the clothes that were already there.

 **"Hey you. I got your message"** She smiled to the CSI that was working on another of his metahuman holding devices.

 **"Hey yourself, I didn't know how busy you were so I just sent a text. If you couldn't come that would have been all right as well. I suspect Cat wanted that article on Supergirl and the Flash as soon as possible?"** Barry inquired

 **"Actually she was the one who told me to come get lunch with you. The article could wait. Which was surprising since she always wants the news to go out as soon as possible"** She replied.

 **"She was all right with what you told her?"** the speedster wanted to know if she would keep her job

 **"Yeah. It was I think just enough. For some reason however besides being interested in the Flash and Supergirl's love life she has taken an eye to me and you. Something about us looking good together"** Kara grinned

 **"Well she is right about that"** Barry returned her grin **"You probably mean something to her even if she doesn't show it. How else one of the richest women in National City would care about the love life of one of her employees?"** The software that he had written in the first few days when he had no other work to do started to ping. There was an attack somewhere near CatCo. The two wasted no time in getting there only to find Metallo, the man that attacked them before.

 **"There you are. Now with the new and improved me you two don't stand a chance"** He smirked starting to throw blasts at the two. Their bracers were already flashing red and green a sign that the Kryptonite detector that he had built was working.

 **"Winn"** Barry called through his com link **"Are those anti kryptonite devices that you were working on ready?"**

 **"Just one, the other has a way to go. Why?"** he asked.

 **"Didn't you get an alert? Metallo is back in town. He's in front of CatCo trying to attract attention"** Supergirl replied.

 **"I didn't. That's odd, it seems the cameras in that part of the city were disabled a few minutes ago. I'm not getting any sort of feeds from them"** Winn replied

 **"I'm coming to get the one you have. Even if all it does is reflect the blasts not absorb them it should be good. We don't really need two shields, just one for Supergirl to defend herself with. I can dodge the blasts pretty easily, they are quite slow"** Barry told him and flashed into the DEO. He came back with a small rectangular object that looked like a shield. Corben was on the offensive, he flung a few more green blasts at Supergirl. Barry intersected with them as soon as they were close enough to pose any threats for her and the absorber seemed to work. The blasts were nullified leaving Kara to attack him head on. The problem was he had the Kryptonite cell in him which again started to weaken her.

 **"Supergirl, catch"** the Flash threw her the absorber. In the slowed time scape that his enhanced perception offered him he saw a flash on top of a building. **"It's a trap. There is at least one sniper on the skyscraper north of you. Be careful"** Before Kara could move three bullets started their supersonic journey toward her. Barry could see them. He moved and caught two of them but the third hit him in the back. Wincing at the pain and falling down on the ground he realized that all of them were made out of Kryptonite.

 **"Flash, are you all right?"** she asked still continuing to battle Metallo. The shield was working, she could get pretty close to the robot without her power level falling too far. She turned seeing that the speedster was not answering. He was laying down on the floor with a pretty large gash in his back. She punched Metallo so hard that he flew all the way across the plaza leaving yet another crater in the pavement. In a few seconds she was next to him shielding him with her cape and her body.

 **"Don't try to stand between me and the bullets, Supergirl"** a pained voice told her. The speedster showed her the other two bullets that he managed to catch " **These weren't designed to kill me. They were designed to kill you. Be careful"**

 **"What about you, you took one in the back. Are you all right?"** she asked. Flash started to phase and the other bullet fell to the floor going through him. The wound on the back was closing slowly but he was still bleeding.

 **"Use your heat vision and seal the wound. I really don't want to use the extra energy to heal that or I'll be pretty useless"** He told her.

 **"Are you sure? It's going to hurt like hell"** She asked and Barry nodded. She hit the hole with a blast of heat vision managing to cauterize it. Barry bit his tongue, but managed to stand up. Just in time to catch two more bullets that were flying at the blonde.

 **"Someone really wants to kill you. Can you stall Metallo for a bit? I need to get rid of these snipers"** He looked around and found another one on the building at the south side of the plaza as well. She nodded and started again to fight with the robot while Barry was cleaning house.

It seemed strange to him the fact that when he got to the point where he saw the flashes no one was there he took the 3 disassembled sniper rifles without bullets to the NCPD. Barry took the bullets and left them in a sealed vault that was part of his lab with a note _"Kryptonite bullets from the attack. To be handled by Barry Allen only for evidence and then destroyed. Flash"._ He went back to help Supergirl with Metallo, getting back just in time. The shield must have malfunctioned and the robot had Supergirl pinned down by the throat in the middle of the street. Flash acted instantly moving behind him and phased his hand through his chest removing the Rock that was powering him, turning him in to an immobile mass. The move did not leave him unharmed however, because of the EM field surrounding the robot which created a sort of interference in the way his phasing worked his hand and part of his arm was full of cuts and gashes and was bleeding profusely. Barry phased the rock in his other hand then let it go dissolving it into nothing. Metallo was still pinning Kara to the ground but with the rock gone, she regained her strength and managed to break free.

 **"Thanks for the assist. Why didn't you do that in the first place? You literally managed to get rid of him in a few seconds"** Kara asked looking at the speedster.

 **"There was a device between that in his chest that surrounded him in an EM field. That's how he managed to absorb the lightning I threw at him the first time. I didn't know what damage it would cause to my hand when I did that"** he showed her the hand that was now bleeding and all cut **"I was being careful, but when he had you pinned to the ground I didn't see any other choice and I got a bit annoyed at him doing what he did and just went with it"** Flash smiled. Kara looked at his the wounds and saw him wincing in pain.

 **"Come on, we need to get you back to the DEO. We have to take care of that hand"** she told him visibly shaken by his injuries. The DEO vans were already on the scene grabbing Metallo to put him in prison, she grabbed him and flew him straight to the Med bay.

 **"Do me a favor, see if I have any broken bones. I don't want them to heal if they are not set"** Barry asked taking off his mask with his other hand. Kara did as he asked

 **"Bones are fine, but at least 3 tendons are severed, two are heavily damaged but not broken and some muscle fibers are not where they should be"** She reported. Barry went and put his hand under a scanner and sighed.

 **"The damage isn't bad. For me at least. A normal human would have lost the use of his hand completely from something like this. Problem is I won't be able to use this hand for at least 12 hours until the tendons heal and I still have work to do at the NCPD"** He sighed remembering that he had to go back to work.

 **"Can't you use the vibrational thingy you used on Alex to heal yourself?"** Kara asked interested in how bad the damage actually was.

 **"Not in this case. It does indeed promote healing, but tendons already heal pretty slowly, I might be able to accelerate that by maybe 20% not more. Compared to the energy that I would use for it, it's simply not worth it"** The speedster explained

 **"I can help if you need an extra hand"** she chuckled. He cleaned the wounds with his super speed and put the bandages around his wound and borrowed a strap to hold his hand to his chest. The broken tendons did not allow him to move his fingers.

 **"That would be appreciated. Are you sure you can leave work?"** he asked

 **"Yea. Give me another 30 minutes to finish the article that I started this morning and then I'll come and help"** She grinned at him

 **"That will be all right for me. I left the rest of the bullets from the snipers in the vault inside my Lab. I'll take care of those before you arrive so you don't have issues with the radiation. The rest however does require two hands which means you'll have to take care of it"** Barry replied. The two split up going at their respective jobs. Barry managed to get a print of one of the bullets and one off the magazines that lead nowhere. There weren't in the system as victims or attackers. One of the prints however hit a match in the military database, but the file was classified. He destroyed the rest of the bullets by phasing them out of existence before Kara came in.

 **"Did you find anything out?"** She asked changing into regular clothes.

 **"Just this. There were two prints on the bullets I destroyed. I was able to get a match to one of the prints, but the file is sealed " he told her.**

 **"Can't you just hack into the file from here and see who it belongs to?"** Kara asked knowing that he could do that.

 **"I wasn't able to set up something as anonymous as I'd like and this getting traced back to the police wouldn't bode well for my job don't you think?"** He grinned as she started to take a look at the guns with her enhanced vision. It would be way faster than going over them with fingerprint powder. After a bit they had an unexpected visitor. Chief Singer dropped by the lab like he usually did when there was a large case that needed to be worked.

 **"Hello, Mr. Allen. Ms. Danvers. What happened to you?"** He pointed at Barry's tied hand. The speedster froze, he was so busy that he didn't even think of coming up with an explanation of how he was hurt. Kara however did

 **"Sorry, Chief. My fault. I fell on him in the bathroom"** She spoke leaving Singer with wide eyes and Barry with a surprised look on his face.

 **"Oh. You should be more careful then, Ms. Danvers. I don't want my best CSI out of action because he somehow inexplicably got a head wound from falling out of the shower with his girlfriend on top of him"** Singer cracked a smile making Kara blush hard **"Did you get anything of the evidence at the attack that took place today on Supergirl?"**

 **"Yes sir. I found two prints, one without a match and one with. But the one that had a match, it came from the military database and the file seems to be classified. We can't even get a picture and the name for that person"** Barry showed him the redacted file. Singer started to rub the back of his head looking at the screen.

 **"This might be a problem. I don't have any strings I could pull in the military. These are the prints that were taken from one of the snipers I take it?"** He asked. Kara was working in the background, she found another print on the barrel of a rifle and carefully took it off as professionally as she could after the crash course Barry gave her.

 **"No, those are from the bullets. This is from one of the rifles"** she spoke taking the lifted print and putting it on the screen next to the one that was already displayed.

 **"Same print huh? So this person in the military is the one responsible for the shooting"** the Chief concluded. **"Nice work. Mr. Allen, I see you were right, she does have a knack for CSI work"**

 **"She felt responsible for the accident this morning and thought she could lend her hand to replace the one that she mangled"** Barry smiled at the man who was grinning.

 **"Not surprised at all. Good work you two. If you find anything else send it down to my office. I'm going to see if I have someone that can pull some string to get us that file. If not the complete version at least a face and a name"** he left leaving the two alone.

 **"Fell on me in the bathroom? Really?"** Barry whispered to Kara stopping himself not to laugh.

 **"What was I supposed to say. That you phased your arm through a kryptonite powered robot in order to save me?"** She grimaced at him her face cracking a smile.

 **"That would have probably been a bad idea"** the speedster replied. Over the course of the next hours, Kara managed to find a set of partials on the other guns as well. Those had no match but they sent them to the Chief as per his request anyway. **"We should ask Winn to find out who this guy is"** Barry finally realized. **"If he was trying to kill you then we should know as fast as we can"** Kara agreed and she got him on the line asking him to check that print and if needed hack into the Military database to get the complete picture. After about an hour he called back.

 **"The guy you are looking for is … dead. He was a special ops CIA infiltrator in the Middle East. Your usual cloak and dagger assassin. However, on a mission 3 years ago in Syria, he was declared KIA when he supposedly took an IED to the face while trying to accomplish his latest mission"** the techie told them.

 **"So, whoever is trying to kill Supergirl is what… a ghost?"** Barry asked surprised.

 **"Pretty much. The other two partials you sent over came up completely empty. Not even a partial match to anyone, it looks like those guys were not even in any sort of system, anywhere. It's like they don't even exist"** The reply came. **"If not even the DEO can find them then they must be some sort of black ops group from inside the government. These kind of guys are dangerous not to mention completely unaccountable for their actions. You two should be careful from now on"**

 **"We will. Thanks, Winn. Can you put a trace on those fingerprints and find out if there are any other crimes done that involved the ghost we`re chasing? Or to let us know if he appears anywhere else?"** Kara asked.

 **"Yeah, I'll have the face recognition program look for him. Now that we have a semi decent picture of him. I'll let you know if anything turns up"** he replied.

 **"All right. Thank you"** Barry said and he closed the line. The two head home after that. Barry found it a challenge to change considering the fact that he couldn't use his hand, so Kara sped him into house clothes as well as herself.

 **"You weren't kidding. I thought this timeline would be different, but apparently this world will always be suspicious of aliens doesn't matter how good or bad they are"** The speedster looked at the blonde who was now fidgeting at changing his bandages.

 **"Yeah. But if this goes as deep as the government, maybe I should let Clark know so he keeps an eye out. If these guys used Metallo as a setup to get me into their crosshairs something similar might happen to him as well"** Kara was worried about Kal. You could see it on her face. Barry agreed, this was something that he had to be careful of as well, she had him. Clark, however, was alone. Kara did that promptly talking to him on the phone. Then helped Barry eat, she didn't feed him per say, but it was kind of hard for him to eat with one hand. He did enjoy it though having Kara help him, not enough however to get hurt since she was pretty annoyed with that.


	9. Argument

It was surprising to see Cat Grant leave her post as head of CatCo. The woman decided in the end to leave James Olsen in charge while she went out in the world in the search of new and interesting challenges. She had not picked Kara for the job because as she thought about it herself, she was too young and inexperienced. That would turn out to have been a mistake the alien blonde's point of view. Cat was pretty lenient with Kara's writing and the way she got her information, but James on the other hand became a bit of a pain in her behind.

She didn't know if the seemingly crappy way that James treated her with was because he was jealous or something else. From what she had heard it appeared that Lucy was moving back to Metropolis after Hank took over the DEO. That meant that he would be left without a girlfriend, so all that she could see was a stupid attempt at getting her attention again. The issue was that their dynamic suddenly changed, from being friends to being boss and subordinate. That annoyed her immensely, so much so that she was actually giving a thought of asking the Chief if he had an extra CSI spot at the NCPD., or even see if she could convince Barry to start a research venture together. Anything other than being at CatCo, which started to prove quite difficult with the new **"boss"** being a dick.

All of it came crashing down pretty soon on her head. It had been almost two weeks since Cat left and she and Barry were out fighting a new alien that had shown its face around the city. She thought that James would be a normal person and overlook the fact that she didn't get the article out in time, considering the fact both her and Barry were injured in the fights that ensued, quite badly and she even came to work wearing long jeans and a shirt with long sleeves so that the purple spots on her body couldn't be seen. Barry had it much worse than her, in the fight he had broken multiple bones and took several hits that were meant for her. While she knew that his speed would allow him to heal faster than she did, she still wanted to take care of him as best she could. The fact that she might get a break from the new boss was something that she thought implicit, however that appeared to not be the case, that day, almost two months after Cat left, when she arrived at the office sitting down for some peace and quiet to write the article about her and the Flash's battle against the alien, James came to her office.

 **"Kara, you know you`re late again for the afternoon edition with that article you were going to write"** He told her with a bit of disdain in his voice. This instantly annoyed her to no end, however she answered as politely as she could without making a scene.

 **"Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Olsen. If I didn't have to battle the damn alien that tried to level the city I would have had the article ready on your desk sooner"** Kara spat her words at him.

 **"Kara, you know I appreciate you saving the city, but you should till try to do your job at least"** He tried to backpedal leaving Kara enough room to attack

 **"Surprising enough, you don't show it one bit. For the last few weeks you`ve been acting like a total ass, who even if he knows what I do when I'm not at work, he thinks that writing the damn articles is more important than saving lives"** she couldn't keep her annoyance in anymore, the way that the man she used to have a crush on treated her was getting on her nerves, being serious enough that it actually provoked anger in the sunny blonde, something that not many people had seen.

 **"Kara, I'm just trying to keep this company running. I don't even have an idea as to why Cat chose me for this position"** he told her the truth, he was just a photographer and sometimes a reporter, he wasn't qualified in the slightest to run the company.

 **"Me neither. But at least she gave me latitude to do my job and she didn't even knew who I was. I would have expected nothing different from you, especially with what you know. But I learned the hard way since a while back that I shouldn't be expecting anything anymore from you"** Kara sat down not even looking at him

 **"What do you mean?"** he asked looking at her completely surprised.

 **"Back when the red K incident happened and I was still in love with you, that's when I figured this out, by myself, while I was all alone. Everyone learned to trust me again, some people didn't even lose their faith in me. I threw Cat off the balcony and she still believed in what I stood for. You however, the man I used to have the largest crush on, just abandoned me. You thought it funny when I showed you a side of me that nobody saw to leave me hanging"** Kara told him with her blood beginning to boil to a point that her eyes started to flare up.

 **"What would you have wanted me to do? I saw a part of you that I didn't like and I thought it best if I told you that. I don't it would have been fair to you if I hid that and then told you years down the line. I was honest, you cannot fault me for that"** He managed to reply to the blonde girl who looked at him with eyes that were ablaze

 **"Telling me that would have been ok. But not going out immediately back to Lucy. You think I don't see the look in your eyes every time I have Barry over at work or we go out together from here? You lost that train and your behavior right now is unacceptable from my point of view. You know what I do, you know who I am and you still get on my case each and every time, many times worse than Cat ever did. I would be completely ok with your behavior if you had no idea about my other identity. Employers do want their employees to work. But you do and even so you don't even act like a friend. More like a stuck up boss that has a bone to pick with me. What is it you actually want, James?"** she asked him bluntly looking in his eyes. She managed to calm down and not look like she was going to burn him a new mouth across his forehead. Barry wanted to surprise her with pot stickers and dropped by, but when he heard the argument that was going on in her office, he stood outside silently and listened. Some of the things that James said made him want to cut him in small pieces and throw him to the dogs. He could hear Kara getting more and more annoyed, but he decided to not interfere, at least for a time.

 **"I want you to do your job. I don't think I'm asking too much considering you do get a paycheck from here"** he told her coldly.

 **"Don't give me that. You know very well that without me doing what I do you would always be out scooped by the other papers in term of Supergirl stuff and interviews. I am doing my job, on both fronts. Creating news and reporting news and not to anyone, but here, to this paper in particular. When I stop doing my job, this paper gets no more interviews of any kind from me or the Flash. So, how am I not doing my job again?"** He told him with an icy gaze that seemed to go straight through him.

 **"You`re too slow at doing your job. Something happens and you get a statement from yourself 3 days later. If even that fast, we need the news as they happen not x days late"** James told her

 **"James, I do believe that you don't know the difference between slow and non-existent. Would you want me to break your legs right now?"** She told him in jest, but her face made it totally believable, making James take a few steps back **"I would like to see how much it takes you to heal and then come back and write about you breaking your legs? I get hurt in those fights. The Flash gets hurt in those fights, compared to you. Someone that sits on his ass in the office all day, we get injured, sometimes pretty badly. I come back and write as soon as I'm able. I have never done anything else. I've even written from my bed at the DEO so you have something to publish the next day. I think I'm going above and beyond at this job to have you criticize me that I get the "word"** **out too late"** The words coming out of her mouth were like poison in the way that they were spoken. Kara was done. She had had enough of James's bullshit.

 **"Even so, the ratings are falling"** the tall man didn't budge

 **"How is that in any way my problem? If anyone is to blame about that it would be the editor of the paper or the boss. Remind me, who is the boss, James? Nobody could get what I get on both Supergirl and the Flash out sooner. Not when it's actually Supergirl writing about herself. If I get hurt and I disappear for a week, who could get a discussion or an interview sooner out of me except when I come back? If you have a valid answer to that question, I would really like to hear it"** She replied. Barry heard the noise that was coming out of her office pretty clearly, so he leaned against the wall vibrating his hands behind his back to create a mini sound reflector field. It wouldn't be a good idea for everyone to hear what she was saying, especially about her being Supergirl.

 **"Nobody, but you could get an interview sooner instead of losing time at the DEO keeping watch over the Flash when he's injured instead of giving out a statement yourself"** the tall man replied visibly angry.

 **"I see now how it is. When I'm hurt and I can't get a statement off myself its fine, but if he's hurt I should come to work and give out statements. Thank you for that, James, I see your nature finally bubbled up to the surface. You will never tell me what to do, not when he is involved. He is my partner out there, the one that gets hurt with me, saves people with me and protects me with his life, just like I do him with my own. He is the man that came into my life and made me realize that I don't need a person like you, who is nothing more than my own cousin's sidekick to keep an eye out for me. One of him is more than enough for me to be happy. He is the one that I want around, maybe even for the rest of my life. You do not get to talk about him like he is worthless, because when it comes to what I do for the people of the city, the one who is worthless to me is you. I should be working rather than spending time with him, by his bedside, when he is wounded? That's the biggest joke I have heard in my entire life. When he gets injured protecting me or protecting the people of this city with me, being here at work is so low on my list of priorities that you can say even rock bottom is higher. Why don't you go spend time with Lucy and get the hell off my back"** Kara had gotten so angry that she could barely abstain from punching him through the wall. The way James talked about Barry like he was a useless rag, that did nothing more than distract her from her work, got her blood boiling enough to make her eyes blaze while looking at James yet again, the bright white fire being extremely visible. The man started to move slowly out of her office when he saw her eyes. The speedster had heard everything she had said, he knew Kara got really angry like once a decade and he also knew that she spoke her mind when she was. He appreciated the sentiment of her wanting him around.

 **"As you wish Kara, but this is your final warning. Continue to be late with your articles and I will have to do something about it"** he got up to leave, but it just wasn't his day. Barry was standing in the doorway with a dark look on his face and some pot stickers that were already cold. He closed the door and smiled at Kara, who instantly calmed down at seeing him giving him a bright smile. He walked over, kissed her cheek and put the pot stickers down. In the blink of an eye, he had James pinned to the wall. His hands were vibrating and the power he was putting out enabled him to keep the large man with his feet off the ground. He spoke softly, but with a voice that would chill you to the bone, it seemed to James like Death itself was speaking through him. That became more and more apparent when his eyes turned completely black and orange lightning started to dance across them. The sight was horrific for the tall man that was being pinned against the wall.

 **"James, I didn't want to interfere in your conversation until now. I was outside for most of it and I thought it was rude to butt in. But you see, the difference from being rude to being a dick is a large one and to be fair, I never liked anyone that was a dick to my girlfriend. Not now, not ever. She is running around risking her own life for the people of this city. I'm pretty sure she saved your life too more than once. I would expect you`d have a little respect and appreciation for what she does.**

 **Imagine that if she had a tight ass jerk for a boss like you are now, you would have been dead, until she could excuse herself to be on the scene. I'm sorry to say but compared to saving lives, the work she does here is nothing but convenience and being able to do something that makes her happy. In reality, she is smart enough to be working in a lab with scientists changing the world we live in, not writing articles about herself which is pointless, useless and a waste of time. Only thing that comes with this place is the press access she has, that enables her to be close to the scene of public events to help if something goes awry and the fact that she loves what she does. So here is some piece of advice for you. Go do your job, go screw whoever you want and get off Kara's back. She will not harm you, she is too good for that, but I cannot say the same about myself"** he saw the man reaching for his signal watch **"Don't even try. I have already spoken with Superman about your case. He told me that as long as you try to harm Kara and I don't hurt you, he won't come and help. I don't even have to hurt you. I can run you to an uninhabited island in the middle of nowhere and let you starve to death. I will make one point clear. Get off Kara's case, let her do her job and shed that "I'm jealous because I can"** **attitude or else this whole thing will not end well for you. You have forgone the right to be jealous about her the moment you went back to your ex. I suggest you adjust the way you behave accordingly, you aren't some macho man who gets to be jealous about a girl he hurt and dumped only because he couldn't handle her darkness, the evil that all of us have inside. I have met my darkness, I have been my darkness and you will meet it too, if you continue on this path. This is YOUR final warning. You would do well to heed it, unless you want to see how nicely I can react to someone that even tries to harm a hair on her head. You have done damage already, it is time that someone made clear that if there is more, then you will be the one suffering it yourself tenfold"** the way this had played out had even Kara scared, if she didn't knew him already she would have thought that the next move he was going to make was a vibrating hand through the man's chest trashing his heart. She did however hear the part about Barry promising Clark that he wouldn't hurt James so she calmed down and just sat there watching him. His eyes had turned black from before, his demeanor to one of a man who had killed and was ready to kill again at the drop of a hat. His voice was the thing that scared her the most, it was soft, calm and yet authoritative, demanding and chilling to the bone. She had no idea that this person, which had the goofy smiles and always seemed to brighten up her day, could become something so demonic when it came to her being in danger or hurt. She managed to get a peek at Barry's face and seeing his eyes, she actually felt the hair on her back stand up. It seemed like his presence was the herald of the apocalypse on this earth.

She thought about it in her head if it was worth it to stay here, since it had been needed to use such an extreme measure to get James to cut her some slack. Now with Cat gone, most of the people that were already here kind of hated her, Winn was now permanently employed at the DEO and with James acting like a douche, she finally came to her own conclusion, it was time to leave CatCo behind and maybe pursue another avenue of work. She didn't like being a CSI as much, but she would be with Barry almost all her day at work or at home and that made her happy. The reporter work was something she liked doing, but the whole environment changed ever since the media mogul left. She didn't need any more problems on her head, there were enough trying to destroy the city without having to worry about deadlines or her jerk of a boss.

 **"Barry, let him go. He's not worth the hassle"** he said with a cold voice. The speedster looked at her and did as she asked, not understanding why she told him to do so, but seeing her face, the darkness in his eyes rescinded and his green gaze came back **"It doesn't matter now. I thought that it wouldn't come to this, you having to come in here and threated him. I wouldn't have imagined that he would actually have the balls to make veiled threats at firing me. I guess things change. James, consider this my resignation. From tomorrow onward I will not be coming back to work. I think that telling you not to spill what you know about me to anyone is not necessary, but if you do … well I'm pretty sure I won't have to do anything. Just tell my cousin that you talked. You probably know what that means. Goodbye. Let's go eat, Barry. I'm free until stated otherwise"** she told the speedster which took the container with the food and walked with her to the elevator. She said goodbye politely to everyone and left. The people in the office were flabbergasted. James came out of the empty office with a scared face of a man who had been utterly defeated. His gambit had not succeeded, even more, now the paper had lost Kara and with her all of the exclusives about Supergirl and Flash.

Barry took Kara in his arms and flashed to their apartment, he got out all of the pot stickers and put them in a pan to which Kara started to warm up with her heat vision. After a few minutes, the food was nice and hot again.

 **"Why didn't you tell me you had problems with him?"** Barry asked her while the two were munching .

 **"I didn't really consider him a problem until today. I always brushed him off and did my work. Today however … how much of that discussion did you actually hear?"** she inquired with a bit of a frown on her face

 **"From what happened after the red K incident. So pretty much all of it. I also stood outside and vibrated my hand to make a sound suppression field. While you were really annoyed at James, you were shouting so hard that I heard from outside telling him about Supergirl. So I thought it would be a good idea that nobody else hears about that"** He smiled at the beautiful woman in front of him

 **"Thank you so much for that. I had no idea that I was shouting so loudly. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about what happened. It's not something that I talk about with people and since the other Barry and Caitlin made me feel better. I decided to let it go"** Kara tried to explain, but she got stopped

 **"I didn't ask you to tell me and you don't have an obligation to tell me either. Some things are better kept for ourselves even in a relationship. Even more so if there are there are some things we had problems with in the past and managed to overcome them"** the speedster argued calming her down. **"No need to apologize, Kara, I've always thought that if you want to tell me something you will"**

 **"I felt a little guilty to be honest. I keep asking you stuff about the future that you lived through and when it comes to me I don't really say anything. That's why I said I'm sorry"** She put another pot sticker in her mouth.

 **"There are things that I haven't told you about that future either. Not that I wouldn't tell them to you if you asked, but they don't really seem relevant, just like the red k incident didn't seem relevant after the two Allens helped you when they were here. I don't mind it. So about the other matter at hand… what are you going to do now since you don't really have a job anymore?"** Barry inquired to see if she had something else in mind.

 **"I thought I can come work for the NCPD. If you can teach me how to be a CSI and Chief Singer falls for the badge and credentials you hack for me"** she smiled.

 **"Wait, you seriously thought to come work with me? That is awesome. To be honest I actually wanted to propose that if you didn't say it first"** the speedster smiled brightly pumping his fist in the air. She saw on her face that she was completely serious in what she wanted to do. **"Can I ask why? I know you love to be a reporter and you don't really intersect with science, even if you are naturally intelligent and can understand stuff on the fly"**

 **"Can you really not find a reason for me to come work with you? Really, Barry? Think harder, you nerd"** she gave him an inquisitive look that had the wheels in his head spinning at maximum power. After a bit of him not answering she pointed at him and let him realize what she was saying.

 **"Oh. I see now. You want to come to work with ME"** He quipped finally realizing what she was saying.

 **"Precisely. I could probably hate the work entirely and still be happy working with you. Although to be fair, Crime scene investigation seems pretty interesting. As a reporter I got the scoop from the police and did ask myself what I would do if I knew in advance what the police knew. Maybe now, knowing what the police do, we can make an even bigger difference"** She laughed at him almost choking on a pot sticker when she revealed that.

 **"I wonder if Singer would agree for us to be detached to the DEO when needed. That way when we get hurt or we need some time off, Winn could cover for us and Singer would have nothing to comment if some super-secret government organization needed our help with one of their cases"** Barry asked himself.

 **"Maybe, but do even two CSI's have the authority of going on their own to solve cases? I kind of doubt that. We would need at least one detective to be with us and that would pretty much mean that we can't use our powers with him around"** Kara thought out loud.

 **"Not necessarily. You see, Singer offered me the option of getting gun training and become a sort of CSI / detective. While I was on my own that wouldn't make sense, but if he hires you, then we can be a team and I can sub in for the detective. I would need to ask though. Come on, let's go to the precinct. I'll hack you some CSI credentials from there and I can give you some things to read. If your reading speed is anywhere near mine you should be familiar with how a CSI works in less than 30 minutes and you already have learned from me the basics"** The speedster told her. The fact that Barry wanted her around and to work with her as closely as possible, was something that made her very happy. She remembered what she had told James and realized that it was all perfectly true. It didn't matter what her job was as long as she was with him and they were both saving the city, but this scenario was even better, they would be saving the city on the job and off the job. She liked that thought very much.

 **"All right, let's go. You did say that you had something to work on"** the two flashed to the precinct, Kara started to read what Barry gave her. He in turn went down to the shooting range and asked the officer to give him the standard tests that he gave any detective. The speedster had shot guns before. He had to learn when he couldn't move so he came out on top passing the tests with flying colors, even more so he got the second highest shooting score in the whole precinct. He went to the Chief which had gone out leaving word that if he has time he should come over to the Lab. In the hour that Kara needed to go through all of the books that were in the lab, Barry had hacked her CSI credentials, had fabricated evidence that she had worked as one before but this time not in Coast City, but in Hub City, he made sure that the persons that Kara worked with on cases were either dead or retired with no known return address and had set up a profile that if ever accessed it would come back to him and he would take care of everything that the requests would come up with. The Chief arrived about 30 minutes later.

 **"Hello, Mr. Allen, I heard you came by to see me. I was out taking care of police business. What did you want to see me about?"** Singer asked not surprised to see Kara around.

 **"Sir, this might sound … presumptuous to ask, but do you have by any chance another posting for a CSI?"** He asked looking at Kara who was busy reading.

 **"Why? Did Ms. Danvers lose her job at CatCo?"** Singer started to laugh but stopped when he saw that Barry nodded. **"Ah, I see. Well I could create a different team, but for that I need someone to lead and you haven't gotten your shooting test so you can get a badge and be the "Detective"** **in charge"** Singer told him quite relaxed.

 **"Actually, I did sir. Just before I came to see you the first time"** he gave Singer the paper target with the hits and the certification that stated the points that he got. The Chief was pleasantly surprised at the high score

 **"So you nearly managed to hit my top score. I have to give it to you Allen, I had no idea you could shoot so well. Mind coming down to the range with me so I can verify that for myself?"** he asked not believing the speedster could use a gun as good as the test said.

 **"Of course not, sir. Kara? Want to come watch?"** Barry smiled at her and she nodded the three of them going down to the shooting range.

 **"So, which weapon will it be?"** Barry asked and the Chief put in front of him three guns, a Beretta, a Glock and a revolver, all fully loaded. The speedster took all of the guns and emptied them at the targets. At the fourth target he reloaded the Beretta and the Glock and shot both of them at once creating a smiley face on the target. The Chief reeled in the targets and was visibly impressed at how accurate the shots were. Kara was even more impressed. Alex had taught her how to shoot, but she never had the accuracy that Barry just demonstrated

 **"Nice shooting, Allen. With that last stunt I think you even managed to surpass my score. Though you know shooting too guns at one time kind of lessens your single target accuracy"** Singer whistled

 **"I know sir, that's why I used only one gun at the first three targets. The last I just thought I would have some fun. But I can always stop making smiley faces and shoot the bullseye"** Barry smiled at the Chief.

 **"Danvers, can you shoot at all?"** Singer asked Kara who was sitting on the bench

 **"No sir, I just had CSI training not weapon training. But I'm sure Mr. Allen wouldn't mind teaching me if you decide that is a requirement for my employment"** She responded sweetly.

 **"I'm pretty sure he wouldn't"** The Chief started to laugh **"It's not a requirement, but I would rest better knowing that you both can take care of yourselves. If I am to send you out on the field"**

 **"Then I will teach her how to shoot. That's not a problem, she is a quick learner, Chief"** Barry replied looking affectionately at his girlfriend

 **"Very good then. I will take care of the employment papers and I will get you a badge and your service weapon, along with your backup weapon as well. As for you"** Singer walked up to Kara who stood up and offered her a hand **"Welcome to the NCPD, Ms. Danvers"**

 **"Thank you Chief, glad to be here"** She smiled shaking his hand rather sternly

 **"Wow, you have a good grip"** Singer winced **"Well since both of you seem eager to get started. Until I get your badge and gun to be able to go out alone, I have another set of corpses in the morgue that require your expertise. It seems that the killer who sucks the life out of people has returned"** Singer told them as they were walking back up the stairs to the precinct.

 **"We're on it, Chief"** Barry replied as the two went down to the morgue to collect evidence. The two closed the door to the entrance and started zipping around the bodies collecting as much as they could from every victim. The bodies were in the same state that the others that had come previously were. Kara never liked working with dead bodies, but with Barry in the room she found that she didn't care. She loved being with him.

 **"I had no idea Singer would agree to me coming to work here. Not after you told him that I work at CatCo"** Kara smiled at him as they were collecting things from the bodies.

 **"Me neither. I thought I would try though and to be honest, I had no idea that he would have us partner up. Beside that giving me a detective job. He did say that when he found out that I closed some of my own cases at the CCPD but I thought he was kidding to be honest. CSI's rarely have the authority to close their own cases"** Barry told the blonde

 **"So basically now we can work as CSI's to help them and on our own cases because of the new Detective Allen?"** she grinned at him

 **"I don't know if Detective Allen would work. I'm still a CSI and I don't know if a badge will change that. But the badge and gun does give us the freedom we need to go out of the precinct and follow our own leads. Or even use it as an excuse to go out when there's trouble. So there's that"** He smiled at her.

 **"I took the reporter job for the reasons you said back then when you were threatening James. Access and the fact that I loved what I did. The thing is, I never thought I could save people outside my… you know what gig. This however means we can save people on and off the job. Which is something I never considered I could do as a reporter. That thought alone makes me really happy that you brought me to work with you"** she smiled brightly to him

 **"Hey, wouldn't you know it. You smile so brightly that you light up even a room full of corpses"** Barry smiled toward her. Kara started to blush profusely. The two finished their evidence gathering and went back to the lab. They had an hour and a bit left until the end of the shift so they got to work. 33 samples from the bodies were taken and analyzed, but none of them yielded anything.

 **"I bet if we go back to the crime scene there's a manhole right in the middle of it"** Barry thought out loud.

 **"Why do you say that?"** she asked.

 **"Simple, the last crime scene was the same and in the manhole I found some purple residue that I already had Winn track from the DEO. What is surprising is that he attacked again and Winn's tracked didn't manage to alert us. Something is strange here"** Barry told her. He dialed in Winn.

 **"Hey, Barry, what's up?"** a cheery voice greeted him

 **"Winn, remember that purple residue I got you a while back. The one that lead you to put a surveillance tab on that Rudy guy?"** Barry inquired.

 **"Yes, nothing has come out of that. I keep an eye on it daily"** the reply came.

 **"Well, then the surveillance system is either not as effective as we thought, or not working at all. He struck again. Same MO. Killed 9 victims this time. We have the corpses in the NCPD morgue. Kara and I are analyzing the evidence right now, but I'm pretty sure it's the same guy"** the speedster explained.

 **"You and Kara? What's she doing at the NCPD?"** Winn asked.

 **"Oh, um. I kind of work here now"** she told him through the speaker.

 **"Wait, what?"** Alex's voice could be heard from the other side of the line **"What happened to being a reporter? Bring news to the people and write grand expose pieces on bad people?"**

 **"Long story, I work at the NCPD now. Chief Singer agreed to hire me. I'm Barry's partner. If you want the whole thing you can come over after work by the apartment and we can trade stories. Winn, do me a favor"** Kara spoke

 **"What do you need me to do ?"** the voice asked.

 **"Erase James's access to the DEO. I do not want to see him around the facility anymore"** She said rather bluntly

 **"I would need to get Hank's approval for that"** Winn responded

 **"Just do it, I'll talk to Hank. Also please hack the computers in the room we had at CatCo and delete everything from there and invalidate that access as well. We are going to make ourselves a new … Cave"** She replied. **"We can talk more when we meet back at the apartment. For the moment just do what I asked"**

 **"All right. We'll see you later"** The voice closed the line. The two worked until they had everything finished. It was already dark outside so they decided to call it a night. When they were coming out of the building Chief Singer stopped them.

 **"Danvers, Allen. Come back in for a minute"** He asked them **"Here, sign on the dotted line"** he pointed to a stack of papers. Kara did as asked **"Starting tomorrow you`re the new CSI that has just been employed. As for you Allen,"** he gave him a badge and two holsters with weapons in them. None of them had a revolver, both of them had on body holsters **"Here are yours. I got you two service weapons since you seem to be so proficient with both of them. Whichever of them can be the service and the backup as you wish"**

 **"Thank you, Chief"** Barry took the shield and put it on his belt and put the service holsters with the weapons in their place under his jacket **"We finished sorting through the evidence on the mass murder case. It's the same MO as the other one. We're going tomorrow morning to the crime scene. I have a hunch that we will find a manhole and more of that purple residue just like I found at the other one"** He gave the Chief a status update

 **"Wait, you mean to say that you two went through the complete evidence gathering and analysis of 9 bodies in under 3 hours? I did ask before but do you two have superhuman speed or what?"** Singer was pleasantly surprised by how fast the two worked together.

 **"No Chief, there are two of us which know their jobs well and enjoy what they do"** Kara smiled at him prompting him to chuckle.

 **"I see I didn't make a mistake in hiring you, Ms. Danvers. You two seem to work very well together. All right then, go tomorrow at the crime scene and see what can find out. Now that you`re a detective you can make use of the police forces around the area, have them canvas, ask questions, whatever you need. Just make sure that murderer gets behind bars. Also don't hesitate to call for backup if you need it. I wouldn't like to see you two dead on your first week at work"** Singer made sure to get his point across.

 **"Yes, Sir"** they both answered. The Chief waved them off and they exited the building flashing over to their apartment. They didn't even manage to change out of their clothes when Alex and Winn arrived.

 **"Hey, you two"** Winn greeted.

 **"Hello Alex, Winn. Come. Sit down"** Kara told them as Barry was getting some tea ready. It was too late for coffee even if the two didn't really get adverse effects.

 **"So, what happened. Why are you working at the NCPD now?"** Alex asked bluntly.

 **"Tea anyone?"** Barry asked from the kitchen and all of them raised their hands. Kara started to tell the two the events that transpired in the last few weeks. Alex was not happy, Winn just had a face that could equate to someone wanting to strangle someone else's throat. After about an hour the tale ended

 **"I see. So that's why you left"** Alex replied **"I didn't know he had it in him, I mean knowing what you do and still being on your back, that's a dick move"**

 **"Not to mention that he didn't really seem to give a shit that you were injured"** Winn added **"What didn't surprise me at all was the fact that he wanted you at work even when Barry was injured. Doesn't that smell like jealousy to anyone else? Hmm?"**

 **"Of course it does. But I have never seen him act like that, not at least while I was around"** Kara told them taking a sip of a new batch of tea that Barry had prepared.

 **"I have"** Winn commented prompting surprised looks from Kara and Alex **"Remember the first time Barry and Caitlin came here?"** the two women nodded **"Well back then you crushed hard on Barry"** Kara gave Winn an icy glare **"What? You thought you were being subtle? You fawned over the man that had a fiancée harder than I fawned over you. I still remember the giggles and the cute looks you were throwing him while he held on to his fiancée. Those were pretty telling. And if those weren't enough, you were actually teasing him, something that I have never seen you do with anyone else, no matter how close you were to them"** Kara face palmed making Barry laugh and Alex chuckle. Alex herself had seen that behavior off her sister **"After you went out with them to get donuts James went full on jealous mode. I even made fun of him because he was so stuck up. So I have a pretty good idea how bad it was back then"**

 **"Yeah and since Lucy left, he has been trying even harder to get attention from me"** Kara replied **"Only he didn't want the kind of attention I was willing to give him. To be perfectly honest, after Cat left him in charge he started getting kind of creepy. That didn't bother me at first because I ignored him, but after he started being a jerk, it started to piss me off"**

 **"I still can't believe that Barry threatened to leave him on a deserted island to die of hunger"** Alex laughed at that part of the story **"How did you even get Superman to agree with you to do that?"**

 **"He didn't. But I told him James might represent a liability and a danger to Kara. Which he has in my future and I knew he had a signal watch to call him. So I thought I should set things straight in case something had to be done. Kal was pretty straight forward. If he tried to hurt Kara and I promised I wouldn't harm him, then it was all good. I didn't harm him at all, I just threatened him with death, a very slow, long, painful death"** Barry gave Alex and Winn one of his deadly smiles.

 **"Why did you even think to talk that with the man of steel?"** Winn asked.

 **"Let's just say I had a hunch"** Barry didn't say more but Kara knew the whole story **"I can't really say much more than that"**

 **"Then I guess that is your new life now. CSI at the NCPD, huh?"** Alex smiled **"And Barry is supposed to be your boss?"** She pointed at the shield and the weapons Barry was carrying **"I had no idea you could shoot, Barry"**

 **"I and he are partners. While Singer gave him a detective shield it's because he has completed cases on his own as a CSI. The only way that we are allowed at Crime scenes is with a detective, but Barry having that now allows us to go on our own and do our thing. Also could be used as a real nice excuse when we need to you know, go save the city"** Kara smiled brightly, Alex thought that she would be down in the dumps losing her job at CatCo but it was nothing of the sort, she was happier now than she was at CatCo the last few weeks.

 **"Yes, I can shoot, Alex. I had some … times in my life where speed was not something I could use so … I learned how to use a gun. Multiple types of guns actually, anything from a hand gun to a high powered sniper rifle"** Barry replied leaving Alex quite surprised.

 **"I can vouch for his shooting skills. I was there when the Chief gave him an impromptu test. He is really good at it"** Kara smiled at her sister

 **"So you can do that … All right. How are you at hand to hand combat then?"** Alex asked sheepishly.

 **"Come and see"** Barry took off his guns and moved the table and the chairs so they would have a makeshift sparring place. **"It goes without saying that I won't use my speed. Whenever you`re ready"** Alex got up and removed her jacket and the two started sparring. Winn and Kara were amazed at how the two fought. To anyone without a trained eye, they were evenly matched, Alex managing to deliver and block about the same number of hits. To a trained eye however, Barry's technique was much more flexible. His attacks did mark places that normally nobody would bother to hit, but the accumulated damage done by those seemingly weak hits were taking a toll on Alex. Kara could see the more they sparred the slower she became until she finally put a stop to it visibly tired while Barry had no problem. Not ever breaking a sweat.

 **"Wow, I totally underestimated you. I thought you could just run fast not fight like that. Who taught you all those moves?"** Alex asked trying to get up. She fell back down the small hits taking a much larger toll on her body than she initially thought. Barry extended his hand and helped her back to the couch.

 **"I don't know if you have something similar here. Have you heard of the League of Assassins?"** he asked.

 **"Yes, they are supposedly, a shadow organization that contains the best assassins in the world. Even the big shot assassins on the market run and hide if they are targeted by one of those people. That's what I heard, we haven't been able to confirm it"** Alex replied.

 **"This technique is something that was taught to me by the Green Arrow. Kara knows who I'm talking about. He, in turn, was schooled by the leader of the league of assassins on my earth. Oliver managed to beat that leader in the end. So you could say I was taught by the greatest assassin in the world at that time"** Barry smiled **"You were probably thinking why all the small hits. Can you raise your shirt?"** Kara gave him the stink eye **"Just the bottom part, don't look at me like that, Kara"** Alex did as she was asked. Their faces fell, she was riddled with small purple spots.

 **"How did those form so fast?"** She asked.

 **"The places that you thought I was hitting softly, it wasn't an illusion. This type of hand to hand combat is not for sparring, it's for killing your target in less than three strikes. Any of those spots if hit hard enough can provoke shock which would mean the next hit would be a guaranteed kill. If used the way I did, they tire the opponent out without killing him, but renders them unable to fight with repeated hits sapping his stamina"** Barry smiled explaining what had happened, making Kara gawk at the realization that he was pretty deadly even if he did lose his speed, as long as he was fighting a human opponent.

 **"You should really teach Kara the moves that you just pulled on me. It could be of great use to her in the battles against aliens and if she can master the non-killing aspect like you did, why not, maybe against humans as well"** Alex realized. Winn could still not believe what he seen. The way Barry had fended off the DEO agent who had expert hand to hand combat skills was amazing for him. He did like the other Barry but this one was a real badass.

 **"Do you want me to ?"** Barry asked his girlfriend

 **"Yes, I do and we can practice at full power too, since you can withstand my hits"** Kara smiled.

 **"I would suggest that you do hold back. Some of those hits can damage even me when I'm vibrating. Even with the increased density of muscle and bone. But sure, I will teach you what I know if you think it would help"** Barry replied.

 **"I'll make you two an "Eye of the tiger" training music compilation"** Winn chipped in and made everyone laugh. Alex tried to stand up but she fell down on the couch again.

 **"What about the new "Cave"**. **Since I just erased everything from the old computers at work and you know the DEO doesn't really track humans that are in danger, where would you want to set up your new lair?"** Winn asked.

 **"I might have the answer to that. We simply set it up in the lab at work. The terminals over there are powerful enough, I can hack all the feeds we need. If I pass everything through the DEO then nobody would even have the guts to ask why them as to why do they need that sort of information. Since ... you know, the DEO is kept pretty hush-hush. Of course I would need some help from you Winn to set that up and J`onn sign off, but with those don't I think we can set something up here, that will serve as our new command center"** Barry was starting to talk techie, straight up Winn's alley.

 **"Of course I'll help. I think I can even get you two more powerful machines just for you and again since they are coming from the DEO I doubt Chief Singer would mind. They would be opened with your access only. Probably thumbprints and retinal scan so we avoid any nosy people from accessing your work"** Winn replied

 **"Good then. We can set that up sometime when we all have time for that"** Kara replied visibly excited about the prospects.

 **"I should go home, it is pretty late and that sparring session left me pretty mellow. Really glad you found yourself another job you like. Or at least where you like the company. Um, how long does this fatigued state last?"** Alex asked

 **"Until the bruising goes away. I'll take you home. You should be able to change and everything else, but you won't be able to walk yourself there. Considering the force I hit you with? They should be gone in less than 6 hours"** The speedster added making Alex's jaw fell in surprise

 **"You`re telling me that you know the amount of force it takes to inflict something that would give a fatigued state for a set amount of time with that accuracy?"**

 **"Yes, Oliver had a lot of practice on me and me on him. I learned to control the hits to push with just the right amount of force. It would totally not have been fun if we had to wait 48 hours between sparring sessions and I would be so fatigued as to not be able to go out and save the people in Central City"** Barry responded to her smiling. He then took her in his arms and was off, he came back in less than 10 seconds.

 **"I'm out too. I'll continue to keep an eye out for that murderer of yours. Maybe we can do something about him and we can set up the connections for the Supergirl Cave when we have time"** Winn spoke but got cut off by Kara

 **"Winn, no. We aren't calling it the Supergirl Cave. That's just weird. Let's just go with "The Lair""** The blonde chuckled.

 **"Or we can come up with something else. Just not Supergirl's Cave, all right Winn?"** Barry chuckled and Kara almost face palmed.

 **"All right. All right. Two against one so not fair. Good night you two"** Winn smiled and walked out the door.

 **"So you can run really fast, you can shoot like a pro and you fight hand to hand like an assassin. I wonder what other surprises you have in store for me, Mr. Allen"** Kara grinned at him

 **"I guess you will have to wait and see for yourself, Ms. Danvers"** Barry smiled holding her in his arms. **"I did say there are still a few things that I have in store for you"**. They both leaned into a long passionate kiss that they both had missed ever since morning. Kara was happy, she might have lost the job at CatCo, but maybe through luck, fate or simple circumstance, she found another one. Now she had to see how she liked it. She did know that even if she didn't take to it as much, her spending more time with Barry was enough to more than offset her job preference.

* * *

To Wall : I don't really like the James Olsen as hes portrayed in the show, no. The mental link, no clue as of yet. As for Music Meister yeah , he might make an appearance, i haven't yet decided what i;m going to do with the fifth dimension imp yet. Due to his personality and penchant for jokes, might be real easy to use him in a sort of comedy chapter.


	10. Adaptation

Early in the morning the two were getting ready to go to work. He had gotten his first paycheck and Kara still had some money so they decided to go buy some clothes. Something that would show the fact that they were cops. Kara wasn't working at CatCo anymore, the colorful dresses and weird cardigans didn't really work with this new job. Barry bought two suits, one black and one grey, Kara did the same she thought it would be cute to go wearing the same thing. She skipped the skirt part of the suit however, opting for pants as well. The two got dressed after the shopping trip, left the extra clothes at home and went to the NCPD to report where they were going and after that they wanted to see where that multiple murder had taken place. In the hallway they met none other than Chief Singer.

 **"Good morning, I see you two started to dress a little bit more professionally"** He chuckled seeing the two

 **"We try. Is there anything you need us for?"** Barry asked.

 **"Nothing new yet. Why?"** Singer replied

 **"We're going to check out that last crime scene. If I'm right there should be more residue of the same kind we found earlier. Maybe this one is less treaded and the evidence we might find is still fresh so it can actually give us a trail to find the killer"** the speedster replied.

 **"All right. Be safe out there and remember, call for backup if you need it"** Singer told them and he left back to his office. The two went up to the lab and pulled up the location of the last murder and with nobody watching them they simply flashed to the alley in the slew of bodies that they had analyzed were found.

 **"I was right apparently. There is indeed an access point to the underground here"** Barry pointed toward the large manhole in the middle of the alley

 **"So you think this guy is actually moving around the city through the sewers"** Kara replied looking at him.

 **"Yes, I'm pretty sure that he is. The last time I went down there I found quite a large trail. Let's see if this is the case now too"** Barry moved the manhole quite easily by vibrating his hands.

 **"Great, new clothes and we go trotting through a sewer"** Kara grimaced

 **"You can always float, dear. We wouldn't want your new sexy clothes to be soiled with the muck that's down there, now would we?"** he whispered in her ear making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. The two got down the narrow tunnel into the larger drain below. Kara did exactly what Barry told her only instead of floating herself, she took him up as well and they started scouring the sewers.

 **"Just like in the first case. There is a trail. After that trail has ended it's like the person disappeared in thin air"** Barry looked at his GPS **"Damn. No signal. We need to get out of here and see where we end up, that way we can make a note and keep this place under surveillance as well"** He spoke. The two went up the first tunnel they could find, ending up, surprisingly near the CatCo building.

 **"Well this is unexpected. What are we doing here of all places?"** Kara asked as they closed the manhole back again.

 **"I have no idea. Let's go back to the precinct. I'm going to pull some plans for the underground and maybe we can find something there"** Barry replied.

 **"Do we have access to the old sewer system as well?"** She asked as they were both walking toward the NCPD.

 **"I don't know, wait, does National City have an old sewer system?"** He inquired looking at her rather sheepishly

 **"Yep. I fought someone in one of those old places a while back. I'm pretty sure there is a part of the sewers that haven't been used for quite some time"** She told him.

 **"You think our Parasite might be hiding there?"** He replied

 **"Parasite? Yes, he might be there somewhere"** The answer came

 **"Well he sucks life out of people, if he isn't a parasite then I don't know what he is"** Barry quipped. While they were talking, Kara's phone rang and so did Barry's.

 **"Kara, there was another attack last night at the chemical plant just outside of town. The NCPD just got the call"** The voice told her. Barry confirmed, the Chief told them to go there right away. Barry took Kara and they flashed to the crime scene stopping somewhere out of the view of the people that were gathered around the site. The two moved toward the scene that was cordoned off by officers and surrounded by press. She looked at him crooked when he put a pair of sunglasses on and they approached the crime scene. The policeman who was keeping the press over the yellow line saw the badge that Barry had on his belt and let them both inside.

 **"What do we have here?"** Barry smiled taking off his glasses.

 **"It seems to be the same as the others. Multiple bodies, decayed to the point of mummification, no signs of attack, no signs of struggle and nothing to indicate what their cause of death actually is"** the officer that found the bodies told them

 **"How many of them are there?"** Kara was looking around as the posed her questions trying to see if she can pick up anything that was out of the ordinary.

 **"12. 7 here and 5 in the other room"** The officer told them as he went to check on the other bodies to make sure that he got the number right.

 **"It seems that our murdered graduated to"** He put his sunglasses back on **"a dime a dozen"** Kara realized what he did and immediately put her hand on her mouth, not being able to hold back her laugh.

 **"Really, Barry? Sunglasses and One-liners? I thought that the other you watched too much Netflix as Ray told us at the wedding, but you too?"** She laughed, trying to hide her mouth from prying eyes.

 **"Well I didn't study all the time that I was in a wheelchair besides, this joke only works one time, I'm betting that if I do this all day it won't be as nearly as funny. But it was pretty effective as far as I can see. I got to see that beautiful smile I like so much"** Barry grinned taking his sunglasses off again. **"Let's look around"** They both grabbed their CSI kits and started to sweep the area. The bodies had the same evidence as before, the type that they could not use.

 **"There's no manhole here. So the monster must have already been above ground when he attacked these people"** Kara observed **"Which means he either came here for something or there is a connection to the sewer system somewhere in the plant"**

 **"There is, but it was supposed to be closed"** Barry replied going further inward. Kara followed him. They reached a storage room which was supposed to be full of toxic waste from the chemicals that the plant was producing, the barrels were empty and all of them had their lids off. Barry asked the policeman that was tagging along with them

 **"Isn't this the toxic waste storage facility? Or did we get lost"**

 **"This should be the exact place you are talking about. Why?"** the officer answered.

 **"Storage Facility. Where's the thing that it's supposed to be storing. All I see is some empty barrels"** Kara retorted reading Barry's intention.

 **"Is the plant manager here?"** the speedster asked the officer. He nodded and pointed them to an office on the map. The two came back to oversee the moving of the bodies.

Someone in the crowd was watching them intently. James Olsen had come to get some pictures of the murder scene. He was quite surprised seeing both Barry and Kara here, after her leaving he thought that he should try to get on the streets and get scoops. He never actually cared about what Barry did at his day job. He knew he was a CSI, but at the moment he didn't seem like one. He had a shield and two weapons that the photographer had managed to catch a glimpse off while he was turning. Kara was the one that had the CSI kit and much to his surprise looked very apt at what she was doing. He never thought about her more than the reporter at the paper, seeing her handle dead bodies and evidence and taking pictures of the crime scene was something completely new to him. But the fact that his gambit pushed the two together even more was something he was angry at himself for. To his surprise his first photo op was the two that were discussing something with the plant manager who had been called down.

 **"Hello. I'm detective Allen, this is CSI Danvers. We'd like to ask you a couple of questions"** Barry told the man that had arrived.

 **"I'm John Shale. I'm the plant manager for the night shift here. What can I help you with?"** He asked. Kara decided to concentrate her hearing on the man's heartbeat, that way if he was telling fibs she could catch him lying.

 **"Sir, can you tell us what happened?"** Barry started his questioning

 **"All I know that last night I went to grab a bite to eat at the usual time. I have to go through here while going out. Nobody was hurt they were all working as well as in the storage areas for the chemicals. When I came back, I found them like this"** He answered. Kara did not detect anything strange.

 **"The storage areas, are those ever empty?"** the blonde asked.

 **"No, never actually, we produce so much waste that even with daily shipping there are always a few barrels that are full in storage"** He answered.

 **"Did you check the storage area after, sir? We went just now and at least one was completely empty. All the barrels that we could see had nothing in them"** Barry hit the nail on the head. Kara could hear the man's heart quickening.

 **"I actually have not, but that's impossible there should be at least a few barrels that are full there. Are you sure you looked everywhere?"** the man tried to reply with a question

 **"Yes we have. There were no barrels that were full"** Kara assured him

 **"So you don't remember a time where this has happened before since you have worked here"** Barry pressed again

 **"No. Never. I should go check if something else is missing. Please excuse me"** Shale excused himself and went back toward the plant.

 **"He's hiding something. His heart rate went up the roof when you asked him about the empty barrels. He was also more than likely hiding something when he answered that last question"** Kara told her partner.

 **"Were you giving him a lie detector test while he was talking to me?"** Barry cracked and gave her a bright smile

 **"Not really, I read in one of those books that people have a tendency to get increased heart rates when they lie or they tell things differently then what they saw. I just listened to his heart rhythm"** She joked **"But he is still hiding something"**

 **"Do you think he actually knows what happened here and he's just keeping quiet?"** the speedster asked the blonde

 **"Could be either of those. I think we should have someone other than us bring him in and question him. See if they can get them to crack or at least give us something"** Kara replied. Barry nodded as the last body was put in the van. They made way for it and followed suit. Both of them had seen James in the crowd, Kara even gave him a gander in passing while going back to her work. He wasn't worth her time and she made sure that he understood that, even with a few glares his way, followed that spiteful smile and nothing more. As soon as they got to the precinct, Barry and Kara went to the lab. They got a sample of the toxic waste that was stored there and both of them had a small idea as to why the Parasite might have gone there.

 **"The cells from the residue that we found this morning seem to bond with the waste"** Barry told Kara showing her a slide

 **"So he didn't come to feed on the humans, he came to feed on the toxic waste and got …"** she didn't manage to finish her sentence, Barry finished it for her.

 **"He got interrupted by the workers. So he had to kill them in order to keep what he was doing there to himself. But why would Shale lie to us?"** the speedster asked himself.

 **"My guess would be that he either knows The parasite and has been letting him feed with the toxic waste, maybe even in the hope that he won't kill again or he was left alive with a warning to not tell anyone what he saw, unless he wants to end in the same way the others did"** the blonde theorized.

 **"The fact that he was left alive makes no sense in this case. The murderer has been very meticulous in killing all the witnesses in previous crimes. Why leave someone alive now?"** The speedster looked at her quite baffled

 **"Because the man has been hiding him and giving him food. Him dying would cut off his supply and the new supervisor would probably realize that the toxic waste is missing and he could be discovered, which would make life for him a whole lot harder, considering we are looking for him"** Kara replied to his question.

 **"We need to go talk to Singer"** the two both agreed and went down to see the Chief. He was free and when he saw them outside his office he waved them in

 **"Chief, could you have one of the detectives pick up John Shale from the chemical plant and bring him in for questioning?"** Barry spoke.

 **"Why didn't you bring him in, Mr. Allen? That's what you have the badge for"** Singer looked at him crooked.

 **"I could? I didn't know CSI's had that authority"** Barry replied.

 **"Mr. Allen. I was not kidding when I said that is a detective shield. Since it highly irregular for a CSI to be promoted to a Detective I had to obtain a few approvals, but yes you are a Detective now. I thought I had made that clear"** Singer replied.

 **"We left him to stew for a bit. When we talked to him it was pretty obvious that he was hiding something from us if not outright lying. He might know what has been going on or even worse, enabling the killer himself"** Kara replied

 **"I see. You base that on?"** Singer inquired

 **"The way he was acting and his body language. He was definitely not telling us the whole story, sir"** Kara strengthened her argument.

 **"I see. I'll have uniforms bring him in later. You want to question him?"** Singer asked quite bluntly.

 **"We would, but we need someone more imposing if we have any chance at him cracking to tell us what he knows"** Barry replied.

 **"Maybe it's time you brush up on your interrogation techniques then. Since you`re in charge of this case it would be quite normal that you and Ms. Danvers question the suspect"** Singer grinned. Kara and Barry knew that grin, he wouldn't leave anyone else to do the questioning either way. They excused themselves and went back to the lab.

 **"Well this is going to be interesting"** Kara quipped speed reading a book about interrogation techniques.

 **"I never said working here is going to be less of a challenge than your previous job. I never thought it would be a challenge for me either. Guess I'd better read up on that sort of thing"** Barry smiled. After a good 40 minutes of reading Kara took her head out of the books.

 **"You did shake down James pretty good. Maybe you should be bad cop and shy innocent Kara Danvers will be the good cop?"** she quipped toward her partner.

 **"That should do fine. I can do Menacing and you would always be the good cop, you are too sunny and nice to be bad. Although, knowing you now, if you tried, I might actually be extremely scared"** Barry laughed surprised at himself that uttering that name did not make him cringe, he actually used it as a joke. He thought to call the other plant supervisor that had taken over the shift. Much to his surprise, the information that he received was vastly different. The drums full of chemical waste in the storage areas started to drain by themselves a week back without explanation. At first he thought that they were getting more deliveries, but when looking at the manifests nothing else had changed ever since the plant was opened. He reported the missing chemical waste to the other plant supervisor, but he just got a robotic off the cuff answer to his questions. That was what they needed to put the pressure on Shale. They had caught him lying. An officer entered their lab to let them know that the plant manager was waiting for them. The two put on their best faces and went down to that interrogation room.

 **"Hello, Mr. Shale"** Kara smiled to the person that was sitting opposite her at the table. Barry had opted to stand. He asked Kara to keep an eye on his heartbeat again.

 **"Why have I been brought here?"** He asked pretty bluntly

 **"Because we have another round of questions for you"** the blonde opened the folder and put a picture on the table. On it was Rudy Jones. The man whose DNA had been found at the crime scenes. **"Have you ever seen this man?"** she asked

 **"No I can't say I have"** He responded quite fast. His heart didn't give indication that he was lying.

 **"I see, have you ever heard of the name, Rudy Jones?"** Barry asked from where he was leaning on the wall looking at what was unfolding in front of him. Kara noticed a significant spike in the rhythm of the sounds she was focused on. She nodded.

 **"No. What does this have to do with …"** he started but Barry cut him off.

 **"Mr. Shale, that is the name of the person who killed your men and another 30 something people across the city. I hope you aren't hiding anything from us, because if you are, as an accessory to so many murders, you will probably get a lethal injection"** Kara knew that voice. It was the same that he used on James. Soft tone, cold demeanor and chilling to the bone.

 **"Why would I be hiding something from you?"** the man tried to defend himself, but his body language and heart rate were totally giving him away.

 **"Maybe because you want to live. Maybe because you are his accomplice. There are other reasons of course, but these two just come to mind immediately"** Kara told him pretty straight forward.

 **"We know you`re lying. We called the other plant supervisor from the other shift. He told us that he even asked you if there were emptying drums offsite, since the storage kept draining to the point it was empty. So, come clean or we can keep you here for obstruction of justice. Your call"** Barry replied in the same cold voice.

 **"I can't say anything. Not if I want to live"** He managed to say with a whiney voice.

 **"So you want to live? The others that were killed and his future victims, because I assure you there will be more, don't matter to you ? Ms. Danvers what's the punishment to accessory to mass murder?"** Barry asked Kara because he had no idea. He hoped she did. She looked at him with a weird face and spoke

 **"I do believe it's either lethal injection or the electric chair. I can't remember which off the top of my head. But I'm sure it's not something that you get out of alive"** she grinned at the man who was now sweating profusely.

 **"Then I guess this is what Mr. Shale will get. We can go with the evidence we have. He is as good as done"** Barry started going toward the exit and motioned to Kara to follow him. She got up from the table and they Barry opened the door. The man didn't like the way the two addressed the problem so before they got out of the room, he stopped them.

 **"Yeah, I know who Rudy is. I've been letting him empty the chemical drums in exchange of him not killing my men or anyone in the facility"** the man finally said what happened.

 **"So I'm guessing you didn't care about the deaths that were happening in the city?"** Barry cut in

 **"I knew there were deaths, but I have no idea what he can do to people. How was I supposed to know that he was responsible for all those murders?"** the man defended himself.

 **"Detective Allen. The precise circumstances of the murders were never completely released to the public. Mr. Shale couldn't have known about who was killing those people"** Kara tried to appear reasonable

 **"Ms. Danvers, no offense, but having a purple monster that comes at night and feeds on the toxic waste that your facility produces is something that everyone would report"** Barry replied

 **"I was protecting my men, if I would have reported him all the people in that plant would have died"** Shale almost yelled at the two.

 **"Yes, because right now they are all alive and the other 30 people that we have in the morgue are alive as well. Make no mistake, Mr. Shale, if you would have come to us sooner, your men and probably half of those people would not be in the ground"** Barry raised his voice back at the man silencing him immediately. The tone which he had used was the one that Kara knew very well from their encounter with James back in her office.

 **"Very well, we shall see what the DA thinks of your plea. Until then, you will be our guest in the NCPD lockup. One last thing, do you know where he is now ?"** Kara asked with a stern voice.

 **"No. All I know is that when he comes for the waste he uses the large drain in the middle of the storage area that leads down to our own recycling facility. That was put there in case something happened and the barrels would have dissolved or seeped through"** He answered truthfully. Barry opened the door and motioned for a uniform to come get the man. While he passed near him he whispered **"This is for your own good, if Rudy comes after you for talking you won't be anywhere safer than here"** Shale realized that the man in front of him did not put him in prison because of a whim. He was trying to protect him from the madman that he had just given them information on. He nodded and left quietly.

 **"That wasn't so bad"** the Chief was watching the two from the other room **"Was it. Actually I would venture to say that it went rather well, I had no idea you could sound and look so menacing, detective Allen, I almost believed you myself at one point"**

 **"Yea, now we have to follow up on the information we just received. Thank you? I don't know what to say to that. It's the first time when someone congratulated me on being menacing, sir " Barry replied to the Chief.**

 **"Don't go in there alone. I can have backup for you ready in less than an hour"** Singer told them.

 **"We don't plan to go in there at all. We were thinking we should call in two friends of ours. The ... heavy cavalry if you so desire"** Kara smiled at the Chief.

 **"Which two people could actually make a difference against a mass murderer that can apparently drain the life out of people?"** Singer looked at Kara a bit surprised.

 **"Let's just say one can run faster than the speed of sound and the other can fly and is invulnerable"** Barry smiled at the Chief

 **"You mean…"** He got cut off.

 **"Yes. That's who we mean. Don't worry, we won't get ourselves in trouble. But we will go with them and show them what we found. Just hope we don't waste their time. The two are quite busy"** Barry told the Chief. He nodded and they left. Barry got out of the precinct and sped them to the apartment.

 **"Why here, we could have changed on the way"** Kara asked

 **"Yeah, but I can't just leave this badge and the service weapons anywhere. They should be safe here"** He commented and Kara understood. If his service weapons went missing he could be in trouble

 **"So what do we do when we catch him. We don't have anywhere to put him"** Kara replied as they were speeding toward the plant.

 **"Parasite is a metahuman. The cuffs should work on him. Also, make sure he doesn't touch you"** he told his girlfriend

 **"Why ?"** she asked surprised at the request.

 **"He can drain your powers and mine. Imagine him with your strength and my speed. That would not be something that we can beat"** Barry explained.

 **"How do you … oh. You have fought him before"** she realized.

 **"Yea, he stole my speed and your strength. We were out for two days while he went on a rampage killing a few thousands. That was … unfortunate. Not going to let that happen again"** He suddenly split in two and the other Barry ran back the other way.

 **"I see, you want to be there when we bring him in. That way there's no suspicion about who our friends are"** She smiled realizing that Barry had thought ahead.

 **"Yes, you're going to carry… me. While I drag Parasite to the precinct. I already took a pair of Meta cuffs from the Lab. I just hope they work, if they don't … the last time we had to kill him and I would rather we don't do that. He needs to pay for what he did"** Barry spoke. The two arrived the plant and Kara started to X ray the ground. She started from the outside going in Barry was zipping around checking for hidden entrances, not finding any that would actually fit a human, since most of them were just drains. No manholes no hidden entrances.

 **"There isn't any way for a human to go down there. Which would make sense because the Parasite that I fought could not turn his body liquid. Maybe this guy can or maybe he stole someone's powers that could"** The speedster reasoned

" **Maybe I should just freeze him then with my breath and you can slap the cuffs on him. When he thaws we'll see if they work on him or not"** Supergirl commented

 **"We need to find him first. Did you see anything?"** he asked

 **"Nothing beneath the ground but under the storage area there is a space which is more than likely shielded by lead. I can see it's there, but I cannot see what's inside"** She replied

 **"I guess the only way for us to see what's inside is to go down. There's not really a better way"** the speedster commented. Kara grinned

 **"Going down then"** She flew up and started to spin with her arms around while heat beams started to melt the ground beneath her. Barry waited for a few minutes until she was done and came back up to get him. The two went down and found something really interesting. The place was really clean, it had no sign of ooze anywhere, it had a makeshift bed and a TV, but nobody was home. It was now pretty obvious that he could turn the liquid. The only entrances were barred. They flew back up and Kara covered the hole so it wouldn't shine sun in the lair. Kara called Alex.

 **"Hey sis, any news on the purple serial killer? " she asked.**

 **"Nothing. How are you two faring with your new jobs?"** she asked

 **"We followed the evidence to the chemical plant and we found what amounts to some sort of dwelling in one of the chemical reservoirs. We found some of that purple residue there. It might be one of the hideouts that the Parasite uses"** Kara answered her sister.

 **"Wait you two went over there as a cop and a CSI? Are you two nuts?"** Alex kind of shouted.

 **"Of course not. We didn't want to ruin our shiny new clothes"** the speedster commented and he heard a chuckle.

 **"We need some surveillance in that hole. Do you have anything that would work at about … 25 meters underground?"** Barry asked

 **"No, nothing that requires a remote connection anyway. I doubt we can put something wired in there. But we can set up some surveillance in the chemical factory. Maybe that would help"** Winn replied form the other side of the line

 **"All right. He might have other hideouts in the city so I guess we're one step closer on catching him"** Kara said visibly annoyed. She didn't manage to finish the sentence wen from behind a geyser of purple goo exploded and came back to the surface reforming into a man.

 **"Yeah, he stole someone's power. My parasite couldn't do that"** Barry commented. He lunged immediately at him but the speedster dodged him with easy. Supergirl stayed far above in the air hitting him with heat vision. Barry threw a few lightning bolts at him, which didn't even manage to phase the person, it seemed that his hit just made the Parasite more powerful. He continued to try to lunge at Barry which was seriously out speeding him. Kara came up behind him and used her freeze breath on him just enough to slow the figure to a crawl, at which point Barry put the cuffs on him. They had no idea if the cuffs would work. The man did not know what had happened to him. Even with the cuffs he crashed into Supergirl only to react like hitting a brick wall. He fell down unconscious.

 **"At least we know the cuffs work"** Barry quipped.

 **"Score another one for the good guys. What do we do with him?"** She asked.

 **"There are containment cells at the NCPD. I managed in my spare time to rig one or two for metas. We can leave him in there. As long as he has those cuffs on he is nothing more than a normal human"** The answer came. Supergirl grabbed him by the cuffs making sure she didn't touch him. She didn't want to risk anything and both sped down to the NCPD, where they were met by Barry's time remnant. Everyone was pretty surprised to see Supergirl and Flash walk into the precinct greeting everyone and, guided by the remnant, going straight up to the Lab. Singer followed them just to see what up. Kara heard him go up and she motioned to Barry letting him know that they had to put on a convincing show.

 **"So we were right. He was there"** Barry told the Flash.

 **"Yes and no, you saw the place he was hiding in. When we arrived there it was empty, it seems that he came back after a bit"** Supergirl told Barry.

 **"Thanks for giving me a ride back. You are going to go back for Kara right?"** Barry asked.

 **"I will go get her shortly"** Supergirl put her hand on her ear like she was listening to something. **"More like, now. I am needed elsewhere"** She told the two

 **"Want me to come?"** the Flash asked.

 **"No, it's not a fight or a criminal. I just realized I am late for something. Got to go"** She grinned and sped out the door. In a few seconds, Kara appeared in the lab in a blur.

 **"No fair, you forgot me… again"** She pouted to the Flash.

 **"Hey, we had to bring the criminal here to put him in the containment cell. Next time well leave you both behind so you can keep each other company"** The Flash grinned.

 **"I was kidding"** Kara smiled at him brightly.

 **"I wasn't. You two seem to make a good team. We have been tracking the Parasite for a while, but you two nerds managed to find his hiding spot. Thank you. That was pretty useful"** The Flash smiled at the two **"Keep it up. If you find others that you know are out of your league, call us"**

 **"We will"** Barry smiled at the Flash. Singer went back and then started walking like he was coming up to see them, Kara looked through the wall and motioned at the two that the coast was clear and they could change places. The Chief saw a flash of lightning pass him and a gust of wind hit him a few seconds later, sign that Flash had left. In reality the time remnant sped out and Barry who had now changed was fiddling with something on the workbench. The Chief entered the Lab.

 **"I barely get you situated and you two managed to close your first case. Now I know I didn't make a mistake. He was where you said he would be?"** he asked.

 **"We went there and looked around. The coast seemed clear but we called Flash and Supergirl regardless. She found an underground reservoir that was used for toxic waste overflow that was completely clean and had been converted into a living space with her super vision"** Kara explained.

 **"Yeah, at first the guy wasn't at home but he came back while they were in there, so they managed to capture him in the ensuing fight. The cuffs that I made seem to work well on him. His powers are suppressed, however I still wouldn't let anyone touch him, since he might manage to drain them even with the cuffs working. I don't know exactly how his powers work, I only had access to his cells and DNA in their degraded state"** Barry told the Chief who was on the chair fiddling with a pair of newly built cuffs.

 **"I told you Chief, we might be brash and go to places of our own volition, but we are not stupid. If we'd have charged in then we would probably be dead"** Kara stressed the point that they would be careful.

 **"Apparently you don't even need backup. Not with those two around"** Singer grinned

 **"Chief, they might be our friends, but we do realize they are quite busy. We always consider the possibility that they might not show up if we call them. That's why were so careful. One wrong move in a case like this and you can bite the dust faster than the Flash can run from here to CatCo and back"** Barry replied.

 **"Good. Then it means you are smart enough to take care of yourselves. I would still feel better if Danvers could shoot, though"** Singer replied.

 **"I will get right on that, Chief"** Barry smiled toward his girlfriend. **"Give me a couple of days, she will probably be even better than me"** the speedster laughed.

 **"You two take the day off as well as tomorrow. It's on me. You deserve it after catching in less than a day, after you got assigned the case, a serial killer we have been tracking for a long while. In case something else shows up I have your numbers. Oh and one last thing. My detectives can handle the normal stuff in this city. While you two are CSI's there will always be CSI work. But for any strange cases involving metahumans or aliens, you two take the point. You have proven more than capable of handling that on your own"** Singer grinned looking at the two who were visibly surprised. **"Consider yourselves the new department that deals with those kinds of threats. Of course you will be expected to do normal police work, the odd murder, or help out if were short on people. But this will be your baby" Singer stifled their surprise with a few sentences.**

 **"Always ready to lend a hand, Chief"** Barry grinned.

 **"Yes, sir. We'll do our best"** Kara replied as well. The Chief went out of the lab leaving the two looking at one another stunned. The left the precinct and decided to walk home. It was a beautiful day outside and they had not been able to enjoy one as well as they could.

 **"I'm glad I decided to come work with you"** Kara smiled taking his arm. **"Thank you for suggesting it and helping me get in"**

 **"Who wouldn't want to work with you? Come on, have you looked at yourself lately? You manage to brighten up a room with corpses, for heaven's sake. Also don't forget, I didn't suggest it, you did, I just … helped you get the posting faster, I guess"** Barry kissed her cheek while holding her hand.

 **"That's because I am happy. After I crushed on the other Barry and going to his wedding, the crap I had to deal with because of James and other things. I thought that I would never really find someone for me. It took a time remnant from another universe, who is the same man that I crushed on, only older, to teach me otherwise. I am happy, Barry. Happiest than I have ever been in a long time and not because I save people as Supergirl, but happy to be plain old Kara Danvers. You have no idea how much that means to me"** She told him truthfully almost in one breath.

 **"After Caitlin and my child died, I found you and you showed me that I had to stop grieving at one point. Then, it was because of you I came back erasing the timeline I was in and losing you all over again. I spent a few years in a cabin in the woods reviewing my mishaps and missing you. I never thought I would be happy again, Kara. That turned out to be completely false. I am happy that those two decided to send me here and I am happy that I met you … again... after the first time... oh, screw it, you understand what I'm saying"** Barry smiled toward her drawing her closer.

 **"I do"** she said pulling him closer and kissing his lips hard. They were in the middle of the street and even people were eyeing them, but they did not care. The world was theirs at that moment.

* * *

AN: Due to some circumstances, i have to return to my day job in order to be able to pay my bills. I will try to keep the same release schedule as i have until now, so you have something new to read each and every week. However, due to the same circumstances i might not be able to. Just thought you guys should know what to expect in the coming weeks. Happy reading.

To Wall : yes, of course it does. However, we also need to be careful not to lose the passions that are part of who we are. Which is why im still going to continue writing, even if i wont have that much time available anymore. :)


	11. Noel

The holidays were approaching fast. Barry and Kara were as busy as ever. Since the Chief made the two their own department, the two had managed to secure links with the DEO, which were of course facilitated by J'onn, got some grant money from the same organization for new equipment that they had put in an adjacent room to the CSI lab, room which was only accessible to them. The Martian was pretty adamant that if they were to offer cooperation to the DEO, it had to be a two way street, so the two started to get calls from DEO cases as much as from NCPD cases. The new **"Lair"** was accessible only to them and nobody else. J'onn had made it pretty clear that the information the DEO was handling was very sensitive and in some cases top secret so the two were the only ones that would have access to it. Furthermore they now had the authority to transport aliens that couldn't be contained to the DEO instead of locking them up in the precinct containment cells.

The Chief had no problem with that. He had an idea what the Department of Extra Normal Operations was about and the threats it was handling. Even more, the fact that two of his people were requested for cooperation with them was something that he was proud of. Alex was the most in contact with both parties, the Chief being a bit surprised when he found out that Kara had a sister that was a government agent. The holiday season was announced to have extremely heavy snowfall, which made the driving in the city a pain, but the two never used a car so that didn't really bother them.

The two had gotten an early morning start at work. They left word that the evidence that needed to be analyzed that had been brought in the day before was finished, as always and that they would be at the firing range. Barry thought it was high time that he taught Kara how to shoot a gun, since the Chief had been on his case for that.

 **"Tell me again, why do I need to learn to shoot?"** she asked looking at him with a strange expression on her face.

 **"We do have to keep appearance, besides I think you'd look hot with two guns"** Barry grinned at her making her blush profusely. Knowing the extent of her strength and the fact that she probably wouldn't have been affected at all by any sort of recoil from any weapon, Barry bought her as a surprise two custom made guns. You would think that a small sunny blonde couldn't look menacing… well you would be wrong. Both models were two magnum desert eagles the full type .50 cal variant, something that the police would probably not use because of the bulkiness. Barry didn't buy them for Kara to be shot with. He knew for a fact that she could laser a weapon out of someone's hand in an instant, but sometimes you just needed to look menacing. One was black with a beautiful design in white on the side and the other was black with the same white design opposite it. Kara was never a gun girl, but she loved the way those weapons looked the moment she laid eyes on them, something which made Barry happy.

 **"Aren't these a bit too big for me?"** She asked holding one, which as big as it was surprisingly fit very well in her hand.

 **"The give the illusion of power. Someone who can handle two of those cannons is certainly not a pushover. Of course you can handle the recoil just fine because of your monstrous strength. Now all we need to do is teach you how to shoot"** Barry smiled.

 **"I already can shoot, Alex thought it would be a good idea to teach me. The targeting is the problem. As my sister used to say, if there is something legendary besides my powers, it must be my extremely bad aim"** She picked up a gun, loaded it and emptied the clip at the target on the wall. Out of the 7 shots only 5 managed to hit the target and only one was actually in the circle.

 **"I can't believe this. You have super vision and you can't aim? How is that a thing?"** Barry grinned at Kara who winced.

 **"You know it's one thing to aim by looking and another to aim down the sights"** Kara wasn't happy at the way Barry was teasing her.

 **"All right then. Since you can shoot it already and I see you can handle the recoil quite well, let's see what we can do about your aiming"** Barry smiled. Over the next few hours Barry managed to share his shooting experience. Kara was indeed a fast learner and she started to correct her aim only after the first few shots. After a few hours passed she managed to hit the targets consistently, shooting either with one gun, two handed and one handed or with both guns. The speedster taught her how to focus her vision on both targets to be able to use both guns effectively. The constant hugging and rearranging her posture that Barry was doing was … having effect on her. She kept being hot and blushing all of the period that they trained.

 **"This is going to be weird. The tall handsome Detective with normal guns and the dorky shorter CSI with two cannons"** she commented while shooting both guns at one at the targets.

 **"I guess people will stop looking at you as shy, innocent Kara Danvers with those two strapped to your chest"** Barry started to laugh. Without much warning the two heard a ruffle behind the door and Chief Singer stepped into the firing range.

 **"Ah so that's why you were down here. You did say you were going to teach her to shoot"** His eyes went wide at the sight of the two guns **"What are you two trying to do, kill polar bears with those?"**

 **"I bought them for her as a present. She can handle them just fine"** Barry told the Chief. He wanted to protest, instead he remembered how strong of a grip the girl had.

 **"Good, then how about an impromptu shooting exam for Ms. Danvers"** He cracked. **"Same as I did with Barry. Except you use those two. I'm pretty sure those aren't standard issue weapons, but you might need them since you now deal with metahumans as well as other threats"** he pointed at the cannons that were now strapped around her body in two holsters that Barry had bought for her.

 **"Of course, Chief. Be happy to oblige"** Kara took out a gun and used a clip each on the first three targets. This time they were set at close, medium and long range. The last target she took out the second gun and imitated Barry by drawing a smiley face on the target with a hole straight through the middle as a nose.

 **"Smileys don't have noses, Kara"** Barry chuckled

 **"I had one last bullet so I thought, why not"** She smiled brightly. The Chief's jaw was on the floor. He had studied her posture and the way her hands were affected by recoil, but to his surprise after each shot her hands did not budge an inch. It was very clear she was strong enough to almost negate the large upward push that the two large caliber weapons had.

 **"I see you taught her well. Including being a smartass"** Singer pulled the last target that had the large smiley face on it **"Good, now I know you can protect yourself as well. That should do just fine. Congrats, Ms. Danvers. You passed"** He commented pulling in all the other targets **"That should come in handy right away. There is a robbery in progress at National City Bank. I need you two to go there, they have hostages and we aren't able to negotiate with the people inside. Shots have been fired"**

 **"Right away, Chief"** Barry answered as the two headed out the door.

 **"Why is he sending us to a robbery, we're, in the end, two CSI's with guns. We don't really have negotiating experience and have never been in a firefight"** Kara asked herself but did so out loud

 **"Things must be dire. I think we should go, but not with guns. You know what I mean"** Barry interjected and Kara agreed. They both left their clothes badges and service weapons in the coded lockers at the lab and sped over to the bank. The officers had already surrounded the establishment. Flash and Supergirl stopped at a distance while she was scanning the bank. Suddenly, the indicators on their suits started to flash red and green.

 **"Great. Someone in there has Kryptonite. I guess these ones came prepared"** Flash commented.

 **"There are 7 people in total, one seems to be bald and wearing some sort of a suit. That is the one that is giving off the kryptonite readings. I have seen that type of suit before, its similar to what Alex was wearing back when she was affected by Myriad and we fought"** Supergirl stated

 **"Maybe we should call the DEO and ask if one of their exo-suits is missing?"** Barry offered. They didn't even have time to do that when Alex showed up with a few DEO vans which parked a bit off from the bank. The two saw them and waved them over.

 **"We were just about to ask you if one of your suits is missing. I looked inside and there is someone that is wearing something similar"** Supergirl told her sister.

 **"We have another problem. Remember Jemm?"** Alex asked

 **"Yea, but why would I care? I thought J`onn killed him"** Kara replied

 **"He did, but it seems that we are dealing with someone like him. Best we can tell, someone took a piece of his DNA and spliced it together with a human. Besides the jewel that Jemm had on his forehead, this guy can do everything that he could do. Which is why I believe that at least the people inside are under his mind control"** she told her sister.

 **"Oh. Great. Mind control"** Barry face palmed. **"There was someone or better said something that had that power. A gorilla called Grodd. Which was affected by the particle accelerator explosion. Being mind controlled is not fun"**

 **"Do you know of a way that we can jam his mind control? Or something to prevent it all together?"** Alex inquired thinking that maybe Barry might have a way out of this without the man hurting people.

 **"No, I could do something if it was Grodd, but this is an unknown species to me. I would need one alive to study and see how his ability works to fashion something that could block it"** Barry said with a saddened face.

 **"Which presents a problem. How do we go inside without getting caught up in everything ourselves"** Kara asked.

 **"If he manages to mind control you or Kara, we can say goodbye to everyone. You two can literally kill everyone here and not even break a sweat"** Alex told them visibly disturbed by the situation.

 **"Kara can't go in there. The suit has Kryptonite all over it and it also has a sword that would probably kill her without much trouble"** Barry told the two **"I'll do it. Kara can keep an eye on me if I get mind controlled she at least has some chance to take me down"**

 **"Barry you are a lot faster than me. If you decide to run I won't be able to catch you"** Kara replied looking at him.

 **"I am aware of that. That is why I brought these with me"** He showed her a pair of metahuman cuffs **"These are made specifically for me"** he put them on **"Put up the display on your bracer. You can turn them on when you need to. They basically will stop me in my tracks"**

 **"How did you come up with these. Did you think this might happen someday?"** Kara looked at him with weird eyes.

 **"Not specifically for this scenario. I thought you might need something to stop me someday. If you want I'll explain, but not now. We have to get the people out of there"** Kara realized that he was right. He separated the cuffs and put them on, tying them to her bracer and sped inside the bank. He managed to catch the man off guard and managed to knock unconscious the others including all the people that were there. In the process the assailant managed to take control of his mind. There was one thought in his head. He had to kill Supergirl. He ran outside where Kara was floating and started throwing lightning bolts at her. She knew that Barry was in there somewhere, because they weren't your average bolts. Every hit gave her even more power. She pressed the button on her bracer and he froze. She floated next to him

 **"Flash, wake up. This isn't you, you`re being controlled"** She told him. She could see that he was trying to resist but couldn't.

 **"Must kill Supergirl"** he uttered Without his speed he didn't stand a chance but he continued to try

 **"Stay away!"** She yelled at the police officers. **"The man inside can and will take control of your minds. We don't want him to have more victims"** The police officers looked surprised but did as they were told. The stepped quite a bit away from the entrance to the bank. Barry was still trying to attack her. It hurt her to see him like that, without really thinking where she was she took him in her arms and kissed him. Alex's face fell, she could not believe that Kara would do something like this in such a public place. Their lips were pressed together for what seemed like hours until she noticed that he was leaning in and his hands were around her.

 **"Wow. That was … weird. I could see myself doing and saying stuff, but it wasn't me that was doing that"** Barry managed to utter after they broke the kiss.

 **"Thank god the shackles worked. Although even mind controlled, you do know that the bolts you were firing at me … all they did was give me even more power, right?"** She told him. The man was coming out but in a fit of annoyance, Barry made a large lightning bolt which collided with the metal exoskeleton shocking him senseless.

 **"They don't work. I guess I need to go back to the drawing board"** The Flash told her taking them off, coupling them and putting them on the man that was now sprawled on the floor.

 **"All clear"** he signaled the cops which started to flood into the bank. Alex came right after and took the perpetrator and shoved him in the back of a van.

 **"But if they didn't work, how come you stopped … you could have killed me"** Kara realized

 **"No matter how much that guy was controlling of me, I shed the part that killed people for you, or at least buried it somewhere deep. I guess when he tried to use me against you the part of my mind that was in control of my powers shut down and took my powers with it. What I said a while back was true, Supergirl. I would rather kill myself than ever harm you, I guess my subconscious mind knows that as well"** the Flash stated with a large smile on his face.

 **"I know, you dork"** she replied this time both of them leaning into the kiss. They didn't care about the flashes, about the people cheering around them, Alex's face or anything else. As they separated a man they knew very well from the NCPD came around, one of the detectives they had done CSI work for.

 **"Thank you for the assist. IF that maniac could control minds then the hostages could have turned against us as well as our own officers"** He said

 **"That's why I had to knock the hostages out. Relay to them my apologies for the headaches they are going to have. I needed to go inside and be alone with him so he would focus all his power on me and not try to reach out to the officers outside"** Flash replied. The reaction was surprising

 **"Wait, so you went inside knowing that this might happen?"** He asked.

 **"Yes. I knew I had someone to take me out of it, if I needed to wake up"** Flash smiled brightly at Supergirl. The detective smiled and shook their hands heading into the bank himself to help. The two disappeared and returned to the NCPD changing their clothes into the usual attire. Kara now had her own weapons strapped to her body like Barry had.

 **"So, Barry. Now can you tell me why did you develop those cuffs so they could stop you?"** She asked softly

 **"You know when you sometimes blow your powers and you remain human for a while? That doesn't happen now as much with the indicators that we have but in case it did. Kara, we sleep together. If you`re human and I have another nightmare like that time when I murdered the mattress…"** he stopped, but he didn't have to continue Kara understood what he was talking about.

 **"You could kill me in your sleep. So you built those to be human like me, so you aren't a danger in case something happens"** she continued his thought and he nodded **"You always think about me more than you think about yourself?"** she smiled brightly at the man who would gladly give up his powers for a time just so she could be safe.

 **"I always have and always will"** He smiled and pulled the feed from the local news station only to be greeted by an image of them kissing outside the bank with a large title on the banner. _"Supergirl & Flash, National City's super lovers"_ He immediately face palmed. Pointing the headline to Kara.

 **"At least nobody will hound us for exclusives now"** Kara said blushing visibly at the detailed image of their kiss.

 **"You had no idea that a kiss would pull me out of the mind control, did you?"** Barry asked.

 **"Nope. It was something that I did on the spur of the moment. I would have probably knocked you out if you continued with the silliness, but I am really glad that you powers were locked. You could have done a lot of damage to the people there"** She told him truthfully. Suddenly her phone rang, it was an unknown number. She picked it up only to hear a familiar voice from the other end.

 **"Kiera, are you handling that new development between Flash and Supergirl?"** a familiar voice came through the line

 **"Ms. Grant? This literally aired half an hour ago, how did it already reach … wherever you are?"** Kara said with a surprised voice.

 **"I still have people that tell me things, Kiera. So are you handling it or not?"** the woman asked.

 **"No. Ms. Grant. I am not, because I do not longer work at CatCo"** Kara told her truthfully.

 **"What? Why did you leave?"** Cat was sure that she left. She was too good of a person to fire when she got into gear and the media mogul knew that already.

 **"I would rather not talk about it on the phone. But as you have figured out I did indeed leave. If you want someone to handle the exclusives, then I suggest you should talk to James about those. If he can get any"** Kara explained to Cat

 **"What do you mean if he can get any?"** Cat suddenly realized what Kara had said.

 **"Supergirl and Flash have been avoiding CatCo for a while now. She was really annoyed about what happened so she decided to stop speaking to anyone from the firm and as you might have seen, Flash is her boyfriend so it would be obvious he would do the same"** Kara spoke softly.

 **"I see. I'm heading back to National City. When can we meet? I want to talk to you"** Cat replied.

 **"I do not know, Ms. Grant. I work for the NCPD now with Barry as one of the CSI's. If we have cases sometimes we don't exit the lab for days"** She told the truth. Some they would be full that even with their speed it would take hours to go through all the cases that came in **"We can come up with something on the fly thought, call me when you get here and we can see what we can set up?"**

 **"Kara Danvers at the NCPD. Well that is an interesting development. Ok, save this number. I'll get in touch with you as soon as I land. Bring your boyfriend as well"** Cat told her, said goodbye and closed the line. The two were nearing the end of their day. Both of them had taken days off for the holidays. Singer was a bit annoyed that both of his CSI's would be gone, but calmed down when he realized that if something was urgent they assured him that they would be ready to help. They both went home and took a break.

 **"Well since we're here, we might as well put up some Christmas decorations, shouldn't we?"** Barry smiled.

 **"I don't really have any, Barry. We usually spent the holidays either at the DEO or at home with the Danvers'. So I never needed to buy any. I only have the basic stuff which were never even used"** she saw him frown **"But if you want we can go buy some tomorrow after we drop by work to check if everything is all right?"**

 **"That sounds fine to me. Unless you would rather spend Christmas somewhere else?"** Barry asked pretty bluntly.

 **"No, silly. I want to spend it with you. Alex is going away with her new girlfriend, J`onn will probably not even be in town and Winn will probably go back to spend it in his home town, even though his father is a maniac, doesn't mean he doesn't have other family to enjoy the holidays with"** Kara smiled at the speedster that nodded. Suddenly her necklace and his ring started to flash. Barry managed to connect the trans dimensional communicators to ring their phones if they were out of the suits, seconds later her phone rang.

 **"Hey, Kara."** a voice could be heard **"How have you been?"**

 **"Hey, Caitlin. I've been great. Greatly enjoying the surprise you guys sent my way"** she winked at the speedster that was next to her and putting the phone on speaker.

 **"We thought you might love that surprise. We could see it on your faces when you came back here how much you enjoyed being together"** Younger Barry commented

 **"You two are literally my heroes"** Older Barry told the two speedsters on the other side of the line

 **"You`re welcome. But that's not what we called. We`re having a get together for Christmas Eve with friends and we thought you might want to come"** Caitlin told them. Kara looked at Barry and muted the call.

 **"So much for us spending Christmas together"** she quipped.

 **"What's stopping us to go spend time with our friends and have Christmas day all to ourselves?"** Barry grinned.

 **"Good point"** Kara replied and unmuted the call. **"We'll be there, when? I guess where doesn't matter"**

 **"The day after tomorrow, Christmas Eve, at 7 PM. Since you won't be needing your suits we'll have Cisco come get you"** Younger Barry spoke through

 **"We have the suits on us anyway. I have my necklace and Barry has the same ring you do. Ok, 7 PM it is. Want us to bring anything?"** Kara asked.

 **"Joy, good cheer and maybe a couple of dozen of donuts from your favorite place. Caitlin has been dying to have some of those again"** Younger Barry told them.

 **"I thought she might want that. Will do. See you then"** Kara replied

 **"See you then"** Caitlin retorted and the line closed.

 **"Well when your own friends from your home dimension are busy or have something else to do, then why not go to a different dimension to hang out with the friends there"** Kara started to chuckle.

 **"Our lives are so weird. Ever since I found out that time travel and dimension hopping was a thing, our lives have never been the same"** Barry started to chuckle himself **"There was a time when I never thought I would hear myself say "I'll just hop dimensions to go meet my other friends for Christmas"**. Not anymore" Kara smiled and pulled him into a passionate kiss, just because she could and she really wanted to. The lingering effects of the kiss that happened at the bank were still having an effect on her.

The next morning they suited up and went straight to the precinct. They checked for trouble around the city from the control center in their lab, but nothing seemed to be rearing its ugly head. There was no new case for them to pick up and no new evidence for them to process so they decided to head out the door when they were stopped by Chief Singer.

 **"Hey, you two. I thought you were off duty today"** he smiled at them

 **"We are. We just dropped in to see if there was anything else we could do. Case load is empty, no evidence to process for any of the other detectives so I guess we`re in the clear. Are you heading out too, sir?"** Kara asked

 **"Yes, but since you came here, let me give you this"** He gave Kara a badge. It was different from Barry's but it was still a shield.

 **"Wait, I hope this doesn't make me a detective"** she chuckled.

 **"No, but it's the shield of the new department you two now form. This will give you access and authority over any case that involves metahumans, aliens or any other sort of threat that isn't human. His shield means he is a detective in all cases and considering the fact most people know him it gives him access and authority over the cases I mentioned above as well. In case he's sick or can't come into work, your badge should confer you the same access his does. That way no officer in National City will second guess you or impede you from doing your job and solving those particular types of issues"** Singer added and gave her the shield which she put around her neck.

 **"Thank you. To be honest I have never thought there would be a time when Barry would not be at work and I would have to do this alone"** Kara smiled brightly

 **"You never know what might happen, I just thought ahead"** Singer told them **"Merry Christmas you two and you don't have to come into work for the days you have off. Someone from the precinct will call you if there is something urgent to be resolved. Enjoy the holidays"**

 **"Thank you, Chief. Merry Christmas to yourself as well"** Barry returned the greetings as they both stepped out of the precinct. Kara's phone started to buzz. It was Cat.

 **"Hello, Ms. Grant"** She greeted respectfully

 **"Kara, I'm in National City, do you have time for us to meet or you`re at the precinct?"** the media mogul asked.

 **"We just got out of work. Tells us a place and a time and we'll be there"** Kara replied

 **"All right. Meet me in 15 minutes at the restaurant close to CatCo. I have a spot there which will allow us to speak without being heard and without interruptions"** she told Kara and closed the line. The two didn't even go home and change, since the city was a mess with traffic, they opted to just walk. After the allotted time, they entered the restaurant where they asked the waiter to take them to Ms. Grant's table. Cat was surprised to see the two come into the quiet space at the back which was separated by the rest of the restaurant. As the two sat down she noticed both their shields and the guns they both had strapped to their bodies under their coats.

 **"This is definitely different. Kara Danvers, in a suit with a badge and two guns?"** Cat smiled saying that, in reality she wasn't really surprised, Kara had proven an amazing capacity for learning.

 **"When life gives you oranges, you make orange juice"** Kara smiled at her mentor.

 **"Good day, Ms. Grant"** Barry greeted politely.

 **"So you`re the man that stole my Supergirl Correspondent?"** Cat asked a bit sternly

 **"I didn't steal anything, I just offered her a job, which coincidentally she is amazing at and has the added bonus that I spend all day with her at work and at home. Another positive point is that she doesn't have a jerk for a boss. I see nothing strange in that"** Barry played it cool surprising Cat. Her presence usually turned people into bumbling idiots or into ass kissers. This guy was neither.

 **"You said you didn't want to talk over the phone. What happened at CatCo? I'm pretty sure that nobody fired you, you were too good at what you did. Why did you leave?"** she asked with a curious look on her face.

 **"James was being an ass. He managed in the few weeks that you were gone to make me feel like I was working for a slave driver. Besides there were some things that made me not want to stand up to his bullshit"** Kara said calmly

 **"What things?"** the media mogul asked sipping her tea

 **"Supergirl got hurt. Didn't show up for 3 days and the second day he kept asking me why I don't have an article on his desk for the evening news"** Kara listed one of the reasons.

 **"That seems … like something that someone without a brain would do"** Cat was surprised she had thought about James Olsen as being someone with something between the ears, not someone who would make such a rookie mistake.

 **"I don't think it was his brain at work, Ms. Grant"** Barry added bluntly, making Cat chuckle.

 **"Then what was, Mr. Allen?"** she asked

 **"His other brain"** Barry said with a smirk that had a knowing smile behind it.

 **"It's simple, Ms. Grant. Lucy left town, he suddenly found himself alone and wanted attention. But the kind of attention he wanted was not the kind that I was willing to give. Ever since Barry came to town I have found myself not wanting to give anyone that kind of attention except to him"** Kara smiled brightly and took his hand in hers.

 **"So basically, he was a jerk and tried to pressure you to get the attention he wanted. I see. Interesting I never thought him capable of doing that. Also I never thought him capable of actually losing the exclusive deal we had with Supergirl and Flash. I assume that was because of what happened?"** she asked.

 **"Supergirl wanted to come find me after one of her battles to set straight some things until they got out publicly and misinterpreted. Instead of finding me in the usual place at CatCo, she found me in the CSI lab at the NCPD, where Barry and I were analyzing the evidence in a serial murder. She asked the same as you did and since she is my friend I had no reason to lie. It escalated pretty quickly from there. As you know Supergirl and Flash only gave exclusives to me or to you. With both of us gone… and with the man which was the cause of my leaving at the helm, the two heroes decided to not give any exclusives to anyone and that was that"** Kara spoke calmly.

 **"Now I understand why the complete lack of exclusives for a while. Serial murder? You two handle that sort of thing?"** Cat was surprised at the shy assistant who would have fainted at the sight of blood.

 **"We actually caught the guy that killed those 30 people. He's being held in the lockup at NCPD until he can be sent to trial"** Barry replied

 **"Supergirl and Flash actually caught him, but it was because of the evidence we collected and our detective work. So I guess you can say that we caught him. Even if he was a dangerous metahuman that could suck the life out of people"** Kara chuckled leaving Cat with her jaw on the floor. Kara Danvers had changed in the weeks she was gone. She wasn't the shy awkward reporter that had worked for her. Now she was out catching killers with her boyfriend and with the help of the two superheroes. That actually earned her enough respect for Cat to stop calling her by her nickname.

 **"Kara, if I return, would you come back to work at CatCo?"** she asked simply

 **"Sorry, Ms. Grant, but no. I enjoy my CSI work and the detective work I do with Barry at the NCPD. I'm happy with my new job and happier still to be next to him all day"** She smiled brightly

 **"I do suspect however that if you came back, Supergirl and Flash would give you all the exclusives you need. They didn't want to talk to James, but you have always been fair to them"** Barry stated rather bluntly.

 **"Then I guess I have to come back. The lack of exclusives is getting on my nerves to be honest. I'm running a media trust not the "old news gazette". Think you two can let them know that I want to talk to them? People are starting to talk about getting them together and I would like them to confirm or deny it"** Cat told the two.

 **"Well, we don't have a direct way to contact them and we do not know where they are or who they are. They might be out of the city spending time with their families. But we can try. When do you want us to tell them to come to CatCo?"** Kara inquired her mentor.

 **"Tonight. I should be free after 8 PM. I need to get back there and clean house" the media mogul answered rather swiftly**

 **"What do you mean by … clean house?"** Barry asked surprised that she would say such a thing.

 **"I'll be honest with you, Kara. When I left I had to choose between two people I could put in charge. James and you. You were let's say rejected because you didn't have the experience required to run a media trust. So I chose him. The problem with that being I probably underestimated your capacity to deal with problems and overestimated his experience. Now I have to deal with the fallout. That's fine. Also stop calling me Ms. Grant. You can both call me Cat"** Cat told them truthfully. It was unlike her to discuss something like this so openly, but she trusted Kara. Kara trusted Barry which meant she could talk without the usual filters she had in place. Now she was acting like a regular woman who was out in town with friends, fact that surprised Kara and Barry alike.

 **"To be honest, Cat, I'm thankful you didn't leave me in charge. I might have been able to manage it all but I would have probably ending up hating it. I wanted to write stories, not manage a multimillion dollar media trust. With Barry however, I found something else I like to do. Something that I never thought I could do as a reporter and that is saving lives like Flash and Supergirl and preventing criminals from harming anyone. I like this job and everything that comes with it. I know I can always be shot, killed, maimed, I can lose Barry, but I still like it"** She smiled toward the woman that was giving her an impressed look.

 **"Cat, you still haven't told us what you mean by clean house"** Barry smiled. Remembering the woman about the initial question.

 **"That's simple. I'm going to fire Mr. Olsen and the 3 stooges that are running this company now with his help and take the reins back into my own hands. Ratings are at an all-time low, readers have fallen by about 40% and everything is pretty much in Limbo. I had no idea someone can do so much damage in so little time. I should go start putting everything together again, even if I have to use duct tape to make everything return to one big functioning piece"** Cat responded pretty bluntly.

 **"Good luck"** Kara stopped and then continued **"Sorry to be so blunt, but being a powerful person doesn't usually bring many friends with it. If you need someone to talk, or just hang out with a coffee in hand and just talk about life, call us. You have been like a mentor to me even if I did have a hard time understanding you at first, so I would like to help in any way I can. Even if it's by doing something as simple as listening or chatting"** Cat smiled at them. She had never had someone who just wanted to be a friend. All the people around her wanted her money or to use her to their own gains, fame, wealth or power, sometimes even as little as publicity, positive or negative. Nobody was actually just a friend.

 **"I would like that. Thank you. Merry Christmas. I'll be in my office after 8"** she told them as they all got up from the table.

 **"If we don't manage to contact them we'll let you know so you don't spend time needlessly at the office"** Barry added to which Cat nodded a simple thank you and went on her way.

After the meeting, the two decided to go around the city in the hopes of finding some Christmas decorations. It was strange to Barry that she only had the basic sort, nothing more. But when thinking about it another way, he always had a family with him, someone who would be there for him at Christmas, even if now those people were gone now. They weren't exactly gone, but they had their own version of himself, probably explaining to everyone else about him would be awkward. He did think about that when accepting the offer to go to the Christmas party, but he thought the others would have it handled already or else he wouldn't be on the guest list. Kara noticed the pensive look on his face.

 **"You ok? You seem to have a lot on your mind"** she asked.

 **"Not a lot, just thinking about how those two are going to explain me to their family and their friends. The only one who has seen me beside them is Cisco. Is there even a card that says "Hello, I'm an older version of him from another timeline" ? I sincerely doubt that"** he chuckled.

 **"Those people are your family too, aren't they?"** She questioned his way of thinking.

 **"In my timeline … things were different. I did manage to look around for a bit while being there. My Eddie died. He killed himself to prevent the Reverse Flash from killing me. Things with Iris were strained after that, she managed to get over him, except the fact that she somehow decided after 15 years that she had feelings for me. Which as you might imagine, didn't turn out well at all. I was already well over her by that time, since I fell for Caitlin about the first time that I saw her over me back in that lab when I woke up"** he told her

 **"Didn't you say that Iris was like your sister?"** she looked at him strangely

 **"We managed to work out our differences in the end. Like family, because that's what we were by that point. Nothing more. It took her quite a while to understand that. I didn't want to be the bad guy in that instance, Caitlin resolved that for me. They had a really long talk, I still don't know to this moment what that was about. It all blew over by the time we were talking about marriage. Iris realized that she had no more pull over me then. She kept trying and trying although her petty attempts drove a large wedge between us over time"** He replied looking rather distraught.

 **"But she did come around at least in the end didn't she? I have met her and she didn't strike me as the type of person who doesn't have a brain. She would have probably figured out that doing the same thing over and over again would totally tank the good impression you had of her"** Kara asked surprised. It was strange for her to ask him and be told stories about the period in his life when he loved another woman, kind of made her feel actually jealous at times, not for long thought. She reminded herself that that was in the past and she didn't want to make the same mistake her future self had made.

 **"She did. Bette also didn't make it in my timeline. We found out later that Eobard had convinced her to go take her revenge on the general that was keeping her captive. She got herself killed and I had to run her out of town before her corpse leveled it. We didn't have anti metahuman gear back then, so we couldn't help her"** Barry said with a sad face.

 **"She's really nice. Also really good at what she does. I met her briefly in my trek back to that earth"** Kara replied. **"So, any more differences ?"**

 **"No, not that I can think about at this time. Ever since the timeline was erased it has been harder and harder to remember things. Maybe in a way it's for the best, there are things I want to forget"** he spoke holding her hand.

 **"Things? Or people"** Kara inquired bluntly

 **"Both, I guess. I want to forget Menace and what he has done and what he stood for. I want to forget the images of my friend being brutally murdered and displayed in the tows square for Zoom's enjoyment, the pain that I felt when I found out my child had died. A number of things I guess"** Barry had a shadow on his face as he talked.

 **"Barry, these things are what made the person you are today, doesn't forgetting them mean that you would forget part of who you are and how you got here?"** the blonde reasoned with him **"No matter how bad memories are, those are remnants of the things we live with. I wish I could forget my world exploded when I was 12. Or that when I came to this planet the only person I could relate to was my cousin and sometimes I felt like a stranger in my own house. Or that my crazy uncle wanted to kill me along with everyone here, because he had a grudge that lasted a long time"**

 **"You are probably right, but this might not be something that I have any power over. Maybe the fact that I'm slowly forgetting everything, could be a hidden punishment from the Speed Force. Something that they conveniently forgot to tell me. Or it might just be Time settling on a new course, making sure the memories of any altered timelines are not used as spoilers for this one. I do not know. To be perfectly honest with you, I don't really care. Even if I do forget everything that happened from that timeline, I still have you and that exchange makes is worth it as far as I'm concerned"** Barry smiled at the blonde who was blushing now as she heard what he had said **"But enough of that. Do you have any idea what kind of decorations you'd like?"**

 **"Not a one actually. Do you have anything that would help?"** she looked at him with her usual puppy dog eyes.

 **"This isn't the first time that we've done this from my perspective. That is strange in itself also, because the last time I had no say whatsoever in what decoration we bought. It was all you"** Barry grinned

 **"Do you remember what I bought then?"** she tried to deflect the obvious awkwardness of the situation that she was perceiving.

 **"Of course. Photographic memory, remember? Come on, I'll show you what the other Kara bought and you tell me if you like it. If you do then we buy it, if not, we keep looking"** the speedster told her.

 **"Wait, do you seriously not have any preference in choosing, you`re going to let me do all the work?"** she smirked

 **"You chose the ornaments, I bought the tree. That's how it usually was between us. Unless you want to change anything, I still have to buy the tree. But I guess I could pitch in to help you if you don't seem to be able to pick and choose something you really like"** he chuckled.

 **"That's fine with me. Let's get this show on the road"** she grabbed his hand and they started going in and out of shops.

In a couple of hours they had all they needed. The two had to go back to their apartment several times to leave boxes of decorations that they kept buying. They also bought a gingerbread house kit and a few other types of sweets. They went to the donut shop to order the 10 dozens of donuts that they would pick up the next day. The shop keeper looked at them strangely. He knew the two ate a lot, but that was way too much even for them. He then calmed down when Barry mentioned that they would have friends over that ate as much as them.

Shopping for a tree however seemed to be quite a challenge. There were a lot of people that were doing the same and the sheer number made it hard to move without bumping into anyone while looking.

 **"Barry, maybe you should … you know"** she motioned her fingers like a man running **"Look around and then we can just go directly to the one that you pick?"**

 **"Don't really like crowds, do you?"** Barry picked up on what she was suggesting

 **"No, not really. I don't have any kind of phobia, but …"** she didn't finish her sentence.

 **"You'd rather not send someone flying or break any of their bones by accident, huh?"** he whispered in her ear. The hot air from his mouth going over her ear made her shiver. She nodded. She was not surprised anymore at how well Barry could read her. It could have been the fact that he knew a lot about her version from the future or maybe that she was just that obvious about some things. But this wasn't something he would know from just that. He knew because he was like her, someone who can share her insecurities and problems and would understand and not judge, sometimes even offering decent advice. It took him less than 10 seconds to go look at all the trees trying his best to avoid people and not have them fly as he sped around them.

 **"I found it"** he took her hand and they walked through the crowd toward something he had seen. The tree was beautiful, Kara looked at it and thought about it being too high, her apartment was large but it would be a waste if they had to cut the tree to make it fit.

 **"Isn't this a bit too tall?"** she asked him

 **"Not at all. I actually went back home and measured the height of your apartment. This is just two inches lower than that. Just enough for that star that you bought earlier to stand at the top of it"** Barry winked at her. He was paying attention.

 **"Let's buy it"** She told the Flash and they took the tree home. It was pretty large and pretty heavy and the two tried to make it look like that. In reality Kara had no problem in holding it up by herself and Barry had just taken a hold of it for show. It would have been a bit awkward for him not to help considering from the outside Kara didn't seem at all powerful. They gave up trying to get it up the stairs and waiting for a few seconds of a clear street she flew it up through the window leaving it in the corner. Barry flashed in some donuts and then left for the usual 2 minute trip to get her pot stickers.

 **"Food's here, all the way from across the big blue sea"** he smiled putting them on the table seeing Kara's face light up at the smell.

 **"Now I understand why you would always go to China to get pot stickers for the other Kara. It doesn't seem at all much when you can run as fast as you can"** She smiled at him digging into the boxes.

 **"Of course it's not. There is a hidden cost thought that I never told the other Kara about"** Barry chuckled **"It costs around 10 pizzas. The amount of energy that I burn whenever I go to China"**

 **"Running over water is difficult, isn't it?"** she asked.

 **"Not difficult per se, but it does consume a lot of energy. More than running across something solid. Imagine that if I take a wrong step or slow down for whatever reason, I can be stranded in the middle of the ocean or even drown"** He took a donut and ate it whole

 **"You never told me that. I had no idea that its actually that dangerous"** She looked at him rather worried.

 **"It is, but since I've been doing it for so long it's become like second nature. One of the times that I went to Wuxi in my timeline a hurricane was in my path, the seas were really bad so … I just decided to kill the hurricane. It was easier that avoiding it"** Barry started to laugh.

 **"Kill... a hurricane? How could you do that?"** she asked with her eyes like saucers at the speedster who apparently could stop one of Mother Nature's worth disasters.

 **"I ran around it in the opposite direction. The rotational momentum of the storm was cancelled out. The storm itself still remained but the hurricane had dissipated. I had to run at Mach 10 to get that sorted and came home rather beat, but I had no problems with it. So don't worry, I doubt anything bad is going to happen to me while I do that. Even if it does, I have GPS in my suit. If I take longer than 10 minutes to get you food then you can come and find me almost instantly"** Barry explained to the blonde that calmed down realizing that even if he was in danger she was still around.

 **"You`re right. I might not be as fast as you but I can get to you anywhere on earth because I can fly"** She grabbed another box of pot stickers as she said that.

 **"Told you we make a pretty great team. I've always had issues with stuff that flew. Never had anyone around that could help with that until I met you. The other Barry doesn't have that problem since Caitlin can literally knock anything out of the air with her ice spears"** He argued his point and grabbed another donut box.

 **"Yeah, she does have some pretty cool powers. Especially that whole ice armor thing. Ollie told me that he tried to shoot her repeatedly and his arrows didn't even faze her"** Kara replied remembering her discussions with Ollie. The two stopped talking and finished eating. Barry looked at the clock, it was nearly 8 PM.

 **"Do you have it in you to go and give a statement to Cat? Or we should just call her and cancel for now"** Barry reminded Kara that they had promised something to the media mogul.

 **"Yea, let's go. If we would have decided to not be there at least we could have called her sooner"** they both changed and this time Kara took Barry flying. She wanted to do that for a while and he always found a way to avoid it. This time however he relaxed knowing that she wouldn't let him fall and enjoyed the experience. It was different than what he had gotten used to with his running. The rush of wind was almost the same on his face giving him the sensation of speed, but his feet didn't have a connection to the ground, which made him feel strange at first. The two landed in the balcony at CatCo, the one that had only one entrance that lead to Cat's office.

 **"Good evening, Ms. Grant. I heard you wanted to speak to us?"** Supergirl spoke toward her as she came out of the office.

 **"I did. I see Barry and Kara managed to get a hold of you two. I would have thought that you wouldn't want to come speak to me after the total media blackout that you put CatCo in"** Cat told them

 **"Since you spoke to our friends I suspect they told you what happened here. You were gone and we didn't think that someone with James Olsen's demeanor would even try to represent us fairly like you do or like Kara Danvers did"** The Flash spoke with his usual metallic voice, he didn't bother to vibrate his face but he did stay in the shadows while Supergirl was comfortably floating in the air like she was sitting.

 **"I did speak to them yes. I had no idea that James would do that to Kara. Fact is that I'm sorry she left. Nothing I can do about that now, she seems to have found herself a job she likes and something more. Flash, you were correct when you said back then at the first interview that if there's someone that has a thing for Kara Danvers it would be Barry Allen, I just didn't think she would have a thing for him back"** She chuckled making Kara smile.

 **"I call it like I see it, Ms. Grant"** the Flash replied

 **"What did you want to see us about, I suspect you don't want all the exclusives that James has missed because of his attitude"** Supergirl asked.

 **"You know what I want to ask you about"** Cat pointed the picture she had on her tablet. The two kissing in front of the bank. **"Can I get a statement on this?"**

 **"What is your question more precisely. A picture is just that, it does not pose inquiries"** Flash spoke

 **"Are you two an item now?"** Cat smirked

 **"You could say that. We have been dating in secret for a while. That"** Supergirl pointed to the picture **" just happened. Flash had been mind controlled by someone in the bank and at the time I couldn't think of a better way to bring him out of it"**

 **"I see, so if it were up to you this wouldn't have been made public at all?"** Cat was curious about that

 **"Ms. Grant, superheroes help people. At the end of the day that's what people expect or want from us. The fact that we're together doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. We'll always be Flash and Supergirl, although I would be honored to have her symbol on my chest as well as mine"** Barry told her quite sternly prompting a surprised look from Kara herself

 **"We don't mind that the people know, we are pretty public persons since we're out there all day saving people, but sometimes there are things that people don't really have to know. Which means we have to be careful sometimes"** Supergirl stated her point as well.

 **"How long since you two have started dating?"** Cat asked.

 **"A while, let's just say now it's counted in months"** Barry snickered

 **"So, how does this work. I suspect you two going out on dates is not ... subtle in the slightest. I'm pretty sure I would have seen pictures at restaurants or in other places if you would have gone out like a normal couple"** the media mogul asked. Supergirl pointed at the recording device on the table near her. The one she put down earlier to record the interview with. It was turned off after the blonde pointed at it.

 **"Ms. Grant. You do realize that we're two normal people in our off time, right? Of course we wouldn't go on a date as our super hero selves. We go out on dates as our other selves"** Barry told her

 **"So that means you know your other selves"** Cat realized and Supergirl continued.

 **"One of the hardest thing I had to do is share the secret that I have with someone else. Flash will back me up on that claim"** Barry nodded knowingly **"Sometimes it takes years of trust and being there to be able to tell someone that you have an alternate life that goes around in a suit saving people. Even then, sometimes that secret would not be shared because of something like fear or doubt. With him, that secret came out in less than 10 minutes while we were talking. Both of us felt really comfortable being around each other and we shared our lives willingly with one another almost immediately after we met. I don't know what you would call that Ms. Grant. I would call it something that is so rare that only comes along once in a lifetime. The ability to share with a person almost instantly everything about yourself. Even the darkest little secrets or in my case, the big ones"** Supergirl gave Cat a large smile as she was talking

 **"I know what I would call that actually. It happened to me with Adam's father. Love at first sight"** She said bluntly making Kara blush.

 **"Love at first sight, a crush, chemistry, a sense of belonging, call it what you will Ms. Grant. It happened to us. I share the same problems as she does. I have never given away my identity unless the person was deemed completely trustworthy or had known beforehand what I could do and had already helped me in reaching my full potential as a hero. Supergirl was the first one that I told who I was within minutes of meeting her, something that felt completely natural"** Flash commented himself keeping his face in the shadows. Even so, Cat knew that he was being serious.

 **"You did tell me that time that the only person that you have a thing for is blonde and flies. I'm guessing you weren't referring to a plane that wears a blonde wig"** Cat smirked at Flash

 **"No Ms. Grant. I was not. A plane certainly doesn't have a body like her, although I guess you could always paint the cockpit yellow"** Barry smirked making Kara blush yet again. Cat picked up on that

 **"So you want me just for my body, huh?"** Supergirl looked at Flash with a cold glare but not being able to keep it up for too long.

 **"Well, yeah I always thought it would be interesting to study you"** he grinned **"up close"**

 **"Why you …"** Supergirl grabbed some snow and threw it at him. He managed to dodge it quite easily and gave her a large smirk their faces relaxing and starting to laugh. Cat was stunned, the two biggest heroes in town that had saved a lot of lives from aliens and from other types of attacks were acting like high schoolers in love in front of her. She smiled looking at the two, remembering herself the good times she had with Adam's father. There were always bad times, but the happy ones were the ones that counted.

 **"So you two are indeed together. I would have said that the pictures would have been wrong but now I see the truth. Congratulations are in order. I guess I could say National City has a new power couple, but somehow that doesn't do you two justice"** Cat spoke making the two cease their shenanigans.

 **"Is there anything else you would like to ask?"** Barry asked the media mogul

 **"No. I got everything I needed to know. I assume if I want another exclusive I should talk to Kara and/ or Barry?"** She inquired.

 **"Yes, or we might drop by unannounced. One thing we'd like to know as well if you don't mind. What happened to James Olsen?"** Supergirl asked Cat

 **"I fired him and sent dispositions to all the CatCo subsidiaries in the country that he is a persona non grata and they should not hire him. Whoever does will get themselves and their HR director fired as a courtesy"** she stated rather bluntly

 **"Mind if we ask why you decided on this course of action?"** Barry spoke softly toward her. **"You can choose to not answer if it's a personal question"**

 **"It's a personal question, but I'll answer that nonetheless, you have told me about your personal lives, it's only fair that I share some with you. In the weeks that I was gone James managed to get this paper in the dumps. Everything stagnated or even worse, fell. The number of readers and subscribers took a nose dive as well. From a business point of view, the fact that Kara left and you two stopped giving the paper exclusives combined with Mr. Olsen's bad management has put CatCo at least in National City into decline. The personal aspect has more weight however. I liked Kara, I came to regard her as a daughter and I was fond of the good work she was doing. I thought maybe one day she would be good enough to take my place. That won't happen now, she left and that idiot is the reason for that. From what I heard from those two, he was pretty rude and creepy as well. That is why I put a ban on hiring him, what if he gets the hots for another employee and goes all creep on her too. The last thing this company needs is a sexual misconduct at work trial. I am pretty happy however that she found another job that she loves with the man that she clearly wants"** Cat told them nonchalantly. She found it easy to talk with the two superheroes almost as easy as it came with Kara and Barry. That made her wonder, she had seem them both in the same place but something was still off to her.

 **"We should be on our way. Even if the city is quiet, we still have things to do at home. We could offer you an instant ride home as well if you need to get there in a hurry"** Barry told Cat

 **"That will not be necessary. I don't really have people waiting for me at home. I'll just take the limo like I always do. Thank you for the offer though. Good night to both of you and Merry Christmas"** She replied. They both told her good night, Supergirl grabbed the Flash and flew off into the night. Cat was left on her balcony looking at them as they faded into the distance. The couple soon returned to their apartment changing to house clothes. They had forgotten the window open so it was pretty cold for something else.

 **"That was interesting. I had no idea that Cat thought that way about me. Sometimes she did come up as motherly, but not that much"** Kara told him.

 **"I'm surprised that she doesn't have anyone at home. Being rich and powerful must really be lonely. Unless she goes to another party with other people each year"** Barry commented.

 **"Maybe next time when she will want to go out with us we could ask?"** Kara reasoned

 **"I think we should"** the speedster replied. The two sat on the couch huddling into each other like they usually did when they decided to watch Netflix. After a bit they started to fall asleep so they got off the couch and went to bed.

Barry had a nightmare again. He woke up in cold sweat but strangely enough not vibrating or flailing around. Just woke up in the middle of the night. It was strange, he had gotten used to sleep on the eerie bed that was in the cabin by the lake. Always alone and sometimes even cold, even with his sped up metabolism, the weather wasn't forgiving out there. This was different, Kara was sleeping with her head on his chest, one of her hands around him and a leg over his. She should have kept him awake, but the comfort and the warmth actually helped him sleep better at night. His mind processed that there was someone close to him, not just someone, it was her, Kara, the woman that he fell for back in his timeline and which he seemed to have fallen for again in this one. His nightmares were few and far between, ever since they started sleeping together. Tonight was no different, he guessed that it was just the random times that the nightmare decided to plague him. He didn't move, not wanting to wake up Kara from her peaceful slumber. He just watched her sleep, her face smiling in the light that was coming into the apartment. It didn't take long for him to drift off back to sleep, this time dreaming a more peaceful version without the ghosts that still haunted him.

The next day Kara awoke to find herself alone in her bed, which lead to a grumble of dissatisfaction. That was quickly stifled by the fresh smell of coffee that was coming from the kitchen. She looked at the clock realizing that it was not morning at all, it was nearly noon. She came out from the bedroom dressed in black shorts and a t shirt, stopping in the doorway to look at Barry who was doing his normal routine in the kitchen. Cooking pancakes. On the table there were 10 dozen donuts, in their boxes neatly packed and arranged. The big surprise came when she stepped out into the house. What she saw was breathtaking. The tree was securely unpacked and put in its place and the ornaments for it were down by the tree in their respective boxes. The house looked festive, all the other decorations were already put up in a way that actually impressed Kara. Of course she had never thought to decorate her whole house but this looked amazing.

 **"Good morning, scarlet speedster"** she smiled coming over and taking a seat while sipping her coffee **"I see you've been busy"**

 **"Good morning to you too, girl of steel. Of course I have been busy, someone decided to sleep in today. Which is totally fine. I however woke up a few hours ago and I was getting bored so ... I did that"** He pointed to the already beautifully decorated house **"I thought I should leave the tree for us to do together. Since"** He stopped but Kara understood immediately

 **"It's what we used to do together, isn't it?"** she asked bluntly

 **"Yes. It is. But it's not just that, preparing the tree with the most important persons in your life is something I have done ever since I was a child. First it was my mother, then Joe and Iris, after that there were Caitlin and Cisco and at the end there was you. So I thought it would be a good idea to continue the tradition"** Barry smiled putting on her plate a dozen or so pancakes and drowning them in syrup.

 **"So I'm the most important person in your life right now, huh?"** Kara asked sheepishly

 **"What. That comes as a surprise to you?"** Barry replied with a grin.

 **"Not so much, probably because I feel the same way about you"** she replied not taking her eyes off the tree that was just waiting there. Barry finished cooking since he had already eaten to have energy for the trips and sat right next to her. He didn't even have time to say anything and her plate was already empty. She kissed him with her sweet lips that had just a slight hint of syrup on them.

 **"Thank you for breakfast, Barry"** she told him after they separated from the kiss with one of her sunny smiles that was now on her face **"So how do we do this?"** she asked pointing at the tree.

 **"However you want, we have time. There are still a couple of hours until we have to be at the party that the other Barry and Caitlin are throwing for Christmas. I have some eggnog ready, we can put on some Christmas music and get started. We can also speed around the tree since we can both do that to get it ready faster"** He smiled at her caressing her hair

 **"No, let's do this the old fashioned way. We have time"** she smiled at took him by the hand moving quite seductively toward the tree that had been placed in the apartment. Over the next few hours they decorated the tree while they listened to Christmas songs. Some of them which Barry started to sing along joined by the blonde. He had a good idea about how beautiful her voice was, it was not the first time he had heard it. Kara however was positively stunned at the clarity and the melodious tone his voice had. She was happy, she couldn't remember the last time she had done something like this with anyone but Alex. Not even back when she was living with the Danvers family. Alex's parents were always busy so it was up to the two girls to make sure everything was ready for Christmas.

This was different, the only man she had wanted with her ever since she first met him was here. The joy of that could not be expressed in words for her, she gazed at him while he was putting stuff on the tree and smiled at herself. This Barry was hers and only hers, no wife, no other universe, no nothing and that made her think that Rao had been listening to her pleas. Kara would probably have never told either of them how much she had wanted to have him for herself. However, she never wanted to step between Barry and Caitlin, she did consider them both friends and that was not something friends would do. When she got that call about a permanent resident in her own dimension she did not think it would be him. The surprise was completely underplayed and totally overwhelming.

 **"What are you thinking about?"** Barry asked and Kara realized that she was staring into space while she was thinking about everything.

 **"This. You, Me. I've never had something like this in my life. Not only that, but I don't even remember coming close either. Only now I realized what I have been missing. I'm just really happy that you`re here with me"** She managed to utter

 **"I am really happy to be here myself, with you. This feels like it could be home for a very long time"** Barry spoke without thinking while he was putting some other ornaments on the tree. Kara was surprised at the bluntness of that statement, but recovered quickly.

 **"It's not like I'm going to throw you out into the cold"** She tried to joke at his expense **"Unless you want to find your own apartment now that you have a job"**

 **"You`re funny. Nice try to deflect my words, but I know what I said and you,"** Barry grinned at her **"You know exactly what I mean"** he came over to her and planted a soft kiss on her lips **"Don't play stupid, Supergirl, you know it doesn't work with me. I know for a fact how smart you are"**

 **"Fine. Yes I know what you mean"** she quipped raising her hands in surrender only to speed at him and giving him a long hug. Barry was just in time to start vibrating so that he wouldn't get crushed by her strength. **"Oops"** she realized how hard she was squeezing only to let out a relieved sigh when she saw him vibrate **"Are you ok?"**

 **"Yes. I kind of noticed that you weren't controlling your strength. You`re excited for this aren't you?"** Barry smiled reading her like an open book.

 **"Excited might not be the best word. You are right, this does feel like it can be home for a very long time. But not this apartment, not this place. The only place that I would call home is somewhere with you in it"** Kara realized too late what the implications of what she had said were and now was waiting for a reply.

 **"Then I should amend my previous statement. I feel like you could be my home for a very long time"** Barry rearranged his previous statement to answer her **"I was trying to be subtle, you know"**

 **"The Flash? Subtle? What is this world coming to"** she started to chuckle **"Now let's get ready, it's about time to go to the party"** They both started to zip through the apartment getting ready to leave. Barry put the donuts in a large container to take with him. A few minutes before the time they were supposed to be called in they stopped and looked at the house. The way that the lights from the ornaments were shining across the living room was mesmerizing. The tree was something by itself as well, the two managing to get it done just in time. It was already 7, the two were ready and a large blue portal opened right in front of the living room table, the two stepped through it and were gone.

They came back around 5 in the morning. The party had broken up by then and they had a blast, especially with him actually talking to everyone and Kara seeing a time ship.

 **"I'm glad we went to that party. Even if it was a little weird at the beginning there, everything turned out well in the end"** Barry said after flashing out of his suit. It was late, they were tired he had just a pair of shorts on, no point in dressing up since they were going to sleep anyway.

 **"What did you expect, you are an older version of their Barry. I know they have seen time travel and dimensional travel, but to be fair that was a bit much. Surprisingly enough, they all took it pretty well. Even your dad"** Kara sped out of her clothes as well putting the large necklace she was wearing back in its box. She put on a pair of black shorts and a tank top.

 **"Yeah. I'm glad he's alive. Also I never thought about him as being such a dog, he found someone. I had no idea that might happen down the road. I don't blame him, I guess he got tired of spending life alone. Considering at least that he is actually alive, he does want to live too"** Barry replied, remembering the way Henry and Tina were smiling at each other.

 **"At least that's something, right?"** Kara quipped sitting next to him while Barry put his hand around her.

 **"I'm glad that my meddling led those two to have a better life. It's interesting how much he was able to do by actually having someone around that didn't try to kill him, but instead worked with him, protected him and loved him"** Barry chuckled. **"Although considering the looks he got tonight, I'm not sure she won't try later on, you know … in a few months"**

 **"It's quaint. Before even if I considered them best friends, going over there and seeing them happy together kind of made me feel a little jealous"** Kara thought out loud

 **"Jealous? Why would … oh"** Barry realized it instantly **"Because she had him and you didn't"**

 **"Yes, that was it. Of course I kept that hidden even though sometimes Caitlin could see right through me. Now however, since I have met you, I didn't really care. They still are my best friends from that world and I felt no jealousy toward them"** Kara smiled brightly at the speedster that was sitting next to her.

 **"My, my, Supergirl. Is it maybe because the object of your desire isn't the me that is now married?"** Barry chuckled

 **"Gee, what do you think?!"** she looked at him sternly but managed to crack at the end into a laugh. Barry got up from the couch and turned on all the lights and the ornaments and turned on the stereo putting on a song that he thought appropriate for the occasion. In a few seconds the table and the chairs were put aside and he came to her offering a hand.

 **"My lady, would you do me the pleasure of dancing with me?"** he smiled. Kara was pleasantly surprised by this sudden proposal

 **"Of course, my lord"** she responded in a quaint accent that made Barry chuckle. She got up from the couch and followed him to the makeshift dance floor. He put his hand on her back drawing her in. The music was slow, enough for the two to get real close holding each other. Without much to say their dance turned into a long soft beautiful kiss amidst the lights that were in the room. Barry had not turned on the big lights, just the ones from the ornaments that had their own little dance as the two kissed. It seemed that nothing else was left in the world except them. A metahuman man and a Kryptonian woman, enjoying their life together and their first moment of calm in a very long time. The kiss soon broke, but their holds on each other didn't.

Kara looked into his eyes and smiled brightly, a smile that nobody else would ever see from now on. Something that was reserved only for him. She had not really been clear about her feelings. Cat was right, it was love at first sight, but she didn't want to say anything earlier because it wasn't for him, it was for the other Barry. But in the time that they had spent together, the love for the other Barry faded as it fueled her feelings for her Barry, the man that was now dancing with her, in her own home. The man that she did indeed want to be with. For how long? She did not know that yet, but what she did know was that what she felt for him was real.

 **"I love you, Barry Allen"** she said softly in his ear as they danced. Barry was surprised, but not speechless. He had loved Kara for a long time, even after she decided to send him back to save the past and the future, she was the one that he dreamed about in the seldom nights that he didn't have nightmares in. Even the nightmares were about her. The woman he had managed to love after the only thing he wanted in his life was taken away. He had held back saying anything to Kara, but the first time he saw her was like meeting her all over again. His heart went in his chest, his stomach was filled with butterflies. He knew this was not the woman he had fallen in love with, but in the past few months he had fallen for her all over again, with the love that he had felt for the one who sent him back slowly crawling into the woodwork. The feelings that Kara was sharing with him was something that he could return with all his heart and soul. There was no longer his Kara, the one that sent him back, the person in front of him now was his Kara. The one he wanted to be with for as long as he would live. He looked at her holding her close

 **"I love you too, Kara Danvers"** he stopped and took her face in his palms, kissing her lips passionately. All the fear and pain seemed so far to him in this moment, farther than they had ever been in his life. He was here, with the woman he loved.

 **"That took a lot to say"** Kara managed to breathe after what were quite a long couple of minutes as the two kissed.

 **"Way to ruin the beautiful moment, girl of steel"** Barry started to laugh. She looked at him crooked then started to laugh as well " **I'm glad you said it. I thought it would be weird if I said something too soon"** Barry smiled as the two closed the lights and went to bed. They were both tired and morning was approaching.

 **"Why would it be weird?"** she asked cuddling into him with her head next to his.

 **"Cat was right. This was love at first sight. The moment I came here through the breach and saw you I already fell for you. Sure, it might have been because of how much I loved the other Kara, but whatever you might think, she was still you. It felt like I was falling in love, again, for the first time, with the woman I have been in love for a long while. I don't know if that even makes sense to you now"** Barry tried to explain

 **"You mean like me falling for Barry when I first met him and then falling all over again for someone that is not the one that I initially fell in love with, but actually is the same person?"** Kara started to laugh. Their positions were the same, except the time stream was reversed. Barry had fallen before for an older Kara and Kara had fallen for a younger Barry. Besides that, their situations were exactly the same.

 **"Oh I see now. We aren't that different then. But for whoever asks let's just say for their sanity that it was love at first sight. Ok? I wouldn't want someone to have a brain implosion trying to understand all this time travel intra dimensional mumbo jumbo that apparently is part of our normal lives now"** the speedster smiled pulling the blonde closer.

 **"Yeah, that would be a good idea"** she smiled back to him putting her head in the crook of his neck. After a few seconds she started to breathe softly and slowly. Barry fell asleep a few minutes later after flashing out of the bed for a tenth of a second to close the blinds. The sun was already coming up and they needed to rest.

They woke up after mid-day, the fatigue being almost completely gone. She woke up first, looked at the clock opposite her and then deciding it's better to just sit in bed with him. That didn't last long, the liquids that were consumed the day before demanding their rite of passage so she got out of the bed and went to the bathroom. When she came back, Barry was sitting at the edge of the bed

 **"Merry Christmas"** He said to her getting off the bed and stretching for a bit.

 **"Merry Christmas to you as well. We overslept " she pointed at the clock**

 **"We did go to sleep at almost 6 in the morning that is something that we need to keep in mind"** the speedster smiled. They both went out into the living room where the sun was shining brightly and the Kara saw something under the tree. A small box with her name on it.

 **"Wait, is that for me?"** she looked at him with a quizzical look on her face.

 **"I don't know, ask Santa"** the speedster cracked as she went to check what it was all about. The gift was beautifully wrapped with long red bow. Inside a small square box containing a bracelet. Nothing too fancy, but the design was unique, it had two strands of lightning that were weaved one against another, almost like DNA but not quite with a diamond shape in the middle. The form that the diamonds had was all too familiar. It was the same shape that her coat of arms had. On the side there was an inscription, what surprised Kara is that it wasn't in any earth language, the inscription was in Kryptonian. **"To my Kara, with love, Barry"**

 **"Are you serious right now ?"** she looked at him **"This is beautiful, the craftsmanship and the way it was done, this is something completely new. This is not something that I would find anywhere on earth. Its… more than beautiful, it's amazing. When did you have time to get this done ?"** she skipped asking him about the Kryptonian symbols because she wanted to know first how long he had been planning it. He pulled out a piece of paper that had the exact design of the bracelet done in pencil.

 **"Ever since I started to work at the NCPD"** he smiled looking at her surprised face. It was something that he wanted to see every day if possible.

 **"This design, this reminds me of …"** she didn't manage to finish her sentence

 **"The design of the bracelets that were made on Krypton"** he spoke in Kryptonian making Kara look at him and her jaw fall completely.

 **"How? You can speak Kryptonian?"** She replied in the same language.

 **"Fluently. I did spend 5 years with you in the future. It would have been weird that I didn't learn the home language of the woman I love in that time, don't you think?"** he replied in the same perfect Kryptonian he started with

 **"How did you know about the bracelets? The designs were something that only master craftsmen knew about. The way they were constructed and what they meant. I have seen a few before but not all. You would have to have gone to Krypton to know the exact patterns you want and I see it was something you yourself designed too, which means you had to have previous knowledge of every pattern and what it meant"** She replied back with tears in her eyes. A piece of the planet she had lost was returning to her memory due to the beautiful present the man before her had designed himself.

 **"I know all of them. Kal found an ancient repository of knowledge that he had never used in the Fortress. That contained every piece of information about this custom and many others. Being together, you have taken me to that place before and showed me everything you could about your planet. Including the designs of these bracelets"** Barry replied to her this time in plain old English.

 **"This design has two meanings. Given between friends to symbolize the bond they share, or …"** she stopped. Looking at the bracelet her eyes filled with tears of joy **"Or telling the person that received it that you love them. A declaration of love for someone in bracelet form"** She realized when her the words came out of her mouth.

 **"Precisely. I do believe you know which one of those it signifies. It is rather obvious, especially after last night's dance"** Barry smiled looking at her face. She was beautiful even when she cried, which was something she did not do often, not in this time or any other he had lived in.

 **"Thank you so much for this, Barry. You have no idea how much it means to me. A piece of my planet recreated on earth by the man I love. I have no words. Thank you"** She tried to make herself stop crying but the tears wouldn't stop coming out. **"And I didn't even get you anything"** she hiccupped.

 **"I don't need anything. You gave me the only present I cared about last night while we danced"** She looked at him not knowing what he meant. **"You gave me your heart"** Barry smiled with his usual goofy smile that had charmed her.

 **"I love you, Barry Allen"** she told him in Kryptonian only to be answered in the same language

 **"I love you. Kara Danvers"** he took the bracelet from her shaking hands and put it on her wrist. The symbols were on the inner edge of the bracelet that made them hard to spot for anyone else but her. Another nice touch that Barry thought about. If she was to wear the bracelet not anyone could see the fact that it had alien writing on it. Kara ran to him almost tackling him to the floor and kissed him holding him tight. The speedster was right on time to start vibrating or else he would have been crushed. She was holding him so tight that even with the enhanced skeletal structure and muscles he could feel the bone crushing pressure that she was putting on him. The kiss was short, but Barry understood how much that had meant to Kara, all the feelings that were coming out had been put in that joining of lips.

 **"You really are full of surprises. I thought you were kidding when you said you still have things in store for me"** She managed to calm down in his arms and he wiped away her tears from her smiling face.

 **"Not a chance, Girl of Steel, this is just the beginning, there are many, many, many more surprises I have in store for you. Just for you"** Barry smiled at her caressing her beautiful face as she kissed him again.

* * *

AN : To eric : thank you, glad you like it

To Wall : I actually like the character of Cat Grant more that i do the actress. Shes something that i find quite easy to write because her motivations, while maybe not clear to the reader, are crystal to herself. THe timeline is indeed catching up, however, ive written this chapter for here and i will be posting the other POV on the other story. Since i suppose you noticed there is a gap of about 10 hours in this chapter. i will be completing that in the other story. :). Im trying to get them both in the same place, because they intertwine. Also, glad you like the chapter.


	12. Jailbreak

It was spring, the snow had gone and the two could finally go back to their meadow and train. Kara had expressed a desire of being initiated in the ways of hand to hand combat after she had seen Barry take on Alex and not only keep up with her, but totally dominating her. She had gotten some training from her sister, but being in the Kryptonite room at the DEO always managed to leave her drained. She wanted to avoid that at any cost especially after Barry had told her that the more she got exposed to the radiation the more damage her cells would receive.

Barry knew she was a fast learner, but also told her to refrain from using her full strength. The ways of the assassins were not meant to be used like a non-lethal way of neutralizing your enemy as he had expressed before. He needed training and managing the power he put into his hits to be able to achieve that. At first, Kara was slow in picking up the moves, but that was because Barry was trying to teach her the non-lethal methods directly.

 **"This won't work"** He told her after sitting on the mat they had brought with them

 **"Why not? I can understand the basic principles quite well"** she told him sitting down next to him.

 **"You need to understand the power of this form of martial arts, master it and after that learn to dose your strength to not kill. I'm afraid this will have to be taken to the next level"** He looked at her while he was chowing down on a few pizzas. The constant vibrating was always draining, but it was the only way to be sure he didn't get one shot by her monstrous strength.

 **"What do you mean?"** she asked eating some donuts to keep up her energy

 **"Simple. When we spar, don't hold back. The hits are supposed to induce shock. My body can recover from that. If the lethal hit is not given then I should be fine"** He told the blonde

 **"Didn't you say that some of the places you hit back when you were sparring with Alex, could kill if hit hard enough?"** she asked with worry on her face.

 **"I did. That is why I'm not going to show you where those spots are. When you can master your own strength and dose the power you put in those hits, then and only then I will show you all of them. If you don't know where they are, you can't kill anyone with one punch, well you actually can since you can make their head explode with enough force, but you understand what I'm saying"** He smiled. Kara looked at him with a pouty face.

 **"But then I won't be nearly as effective as you know how to use them"**

 **"I know, but you will be good enough. This type of fighting requires killing instinct. Oliver was pretty clear on that and I was only able to learn it after I became Menace. You don't really have a killing instinct, Kara. You fight for self-preservation and to save people"** He looked at her taking her face in his hands and planting a short kiss on her lips **"I would rather not be responsible of you feeling guilty over killing a human because of an accident"**

 **"You`re right. I wouldn't want to use the spots that kill unless I become really aware about how much power I put in. Does not knowing them make that much of a difference?"** she inquired

 **"It only makes that much of a difference if you want to kill someone. Of course the fatigue will appear faster when you use them correctly, but I would rather not show them to you. The effect will be the same with the others as well, just a bit slower"** Barry explained.

 **"I understand. When I learn to control my power enough to be able to battle a normal human without killing them, then you can show me"** she quipped

 **"That's my girl. I know you can do it. The ultimate test will be you sparring with Alex. Not as you usually did, in the kryptonite room, but outside of it. If you manage not to seriously injure her then that will be the time for me to teach you everything"** The speedster told the blonde who agreed. They resumed their training, this time with full force. Barry had taught her how to dose her strength out of battle, by practicing on a few bottles. First few of them exploded on contact with her fist, but as Barry explained more and more, the bottles started to just break all the way to her fist only producing a crack in the glass that would expand and break the bottle. Barry was impressed about the degree of control she had over her powers. Even if she had gone against all her foes and won through sheer strength, she seemed to be pretty apt and withholding her strength back.

 **"That's amazing. I knew you had a degree of control to your strength, but not this much"** he said visibly impressed when the last bottle crumbled instead of exploding.

 **"Barry, all my life I had to control it. From a simple hi-five to a hug, if it wasn't controlled then I could literally break something or kill the person. This type of training only makes the actual dosage of power more seamless. Teaching me to use the control I already have and to perfect it"** She replied to the speedster.

 **"Good. We'll continue training over the next few months until I'm satisfied that you know how to not kill someone with one hit. Until then, do me a favor and only apply what I have shown you to aliens that you know have strong bodies. With a simple human, just punch him, for now"** he told her while getting off the mat

 **"That I can do. I already know how much to put into it so it doesn't explode his head"** she smiled back to him and got up herself **"You really think I can go head to head with Alex and not seriously hurt her?"**

 **"Yes, because as the lessons advance I will decrease the vibrations that I'm putting out until I can fight you without vibrating at all. At that point if you manage not to hurt me and just put me out of action, I'm pretty sure you can do that with Alex as well. In the end, I am still human, Kara, even though I have super speed. My body is not impervious like yours is"** he replied starting to vibrate and getting in one of the stances.

 **"Thank you for doing this for me. It would be wonderful to be able to have that much control and not kill someone if by some random chance I forget to dose my strength. Besides, the way you move looks bad ass"** She got into an attack stance and started to spar with him.

 **"You don't need to move like me to look bad ass, Kara. Your behind does that for you"** He grinned and she started to blush hard.

The punches she was putting out were pretty heavy, but Barry did tell her to go all out in order to learn. He knew that he was going to feel those hits later, but his fast healing should keep him safe. They continued for a while, Kara had already got the basics down faster than he ever did even with Oliver teaching him. She managed to get a few good hits in enough that the spots started to bruise even with the enhanced skeletal structure and musculature. She motioned for her to stop and sat down, his breathing was pretty shallow and he could feel himself getting tired. The attacks had worked precisely as they were intended, even if she used her full power.

" **I think that's enough for today. It will take me enough energy to heal from the hits I took. Can you go get us a few more pizzas?"** he took down his mask and opened his costume to reveal quite a few bruises on that appeared on his chest. He vibrated for a few minutes and they were gone.

 **"I'm still surprised that you can take the full brunt of my hits and not die. But I understand now a little better why you told me not to hold back at first. It feels different when you`re doing it with the intent to harm someone rather than holding back"** Kara got up. In a few minutes she was back with another set of Pizzas.

 **"Yes. It does. It made me feel powerful, unstoppable. If I do this while I use my speed I can take down a room of 100 people in less than 10 seconds. Provided they are all humans. Not killing them takes way longer, but in the end killing is no longer my style so, life is what you make of it"** he smiled brightly munching on a pizza.

 **"I noticed that even if you hit me as hard as you can and we both know that you can hit me hard enough to harm me, I don't really bruise"** Kara took off the top of her suit remaining in a white lace bra. She would not do this in an open space before, but she didn't really care now, probably because he was with her and they were both alone on the meadow. Her stomach and her back were clear of bruises even though Barry had hit her quite a few times.

 **"Probably because your skin acts like a shock absorber. The tissues underneath don't get damaged, they just absorb or relay the shock to your internal organs. Even if there will be enemies that know this sort of battle technique, they will be unable to determine if it works on you"** Barry looked at her bruise free body noting how much he liked what she was wearing underneath, managing to brush his hand over her back giving her the chills. She put the top back on and got herself a slice of pizza as well.

 **"Yeah, that's a blessing and a curse as well. My skin is basically invulnerable, but with enough impact I can get serious internal organ damage. While I do heal fast as you might know, repeated hits can have enough serious effects to leave me unconscious for a while"** she replied after finishing the slice she had in her hand.

 **"You can use some of the defensive moves I've taught you to channel the impact into your hands. You are fast enough to catch anything that's being thrown at you, so it would make sense that instead of letting it hit you so you absorb the impact, you catch it and your hands can do the same. That should lessen the impact your internal organs have to suffer keeping you on point"** Barry replied while he finished the rest of the food. Kara thought about it and everything that the speedster had said had indeed merit. He looked at him and realized that all he has been teaching her was not only a means of attack, most of the moves she had observed could be used in defensive stances as well. They got up to practice more and his phone rang.

 **"Yes Chief, is there a problem?"** Barry replied seeing the number on the screen

 **"We have had a murder, its right up your alley, get over here as fast as you can"** Singer told them. They both went back to their home and dressed appropriately, speeding to the precinct. Without asking anything they went straight to his office.

 **"We discovered a corpse last night, who died under circumstances we cannot determine. The ME did not find any wounds, no foreign substance in his body and nothing that would indicate strangulation or maybe drowning. Here's the file, if this isn't something weird then I don't know what is"** Singer handed Kara a file.

 **"We'll get right on it, sir"** The two CSI's went back to the morgue where there was a body waiting for them. Barry started to read the coroner's report while Kara examined the body with her enhanced vision.

 **"It says here that there were no abnormalities, no heart defects, no embolisms, nothing that could kill someone so suddenly. It's like he was walking along minding his own business and suddenly dropped dead"** The speedster told the blonde

 **"I can't find anything on him out of the ordinary"** Kara came to a conclusion, then looked at the man which seemed familiar. She thought for a bit and then realized it was an agent from the DEO. **"Barry, I know this man. He was working at the DEO, one of the agents that helped with capture and holding of the threats that appear. I think his name was … Weaver"** Barry quickly grabbed his phone and called Winn.

 **"Hey Winn, do you have an agent Weaver working there ?"** Barry asked.

 **"Yes, he has been with the DEO for quite a long time, why?"** the voice at the other end of the line responded while the speedster put the phone on speaker.

 **"Has he shown up for work today by any chance?"** Kara asked.

 **"Yes, he's down in holding block A right now"** Winn answered.

 **"Ok that is a problem, because he's here, in the Morgue. Dead"** Barry told Winn

 **"Send Alex over here to ID him. If this is the real one then the one over there is definitely someone or something else. We'll wait here"** Kara replied

 **"Ok, sending her there now. I'm going to keep an eye on what the double is doing from now on. He has been all over the facility so that shouldn't be a problem. I hope"** Winn closed the line. After about 30 minutes, Alex Danvers was walking into the morgue being greeted by the two. She had seen her sister before dressed as a cop, but now she noticed the badge as well as the two guns she had on her person.

 **"Look at you all professional. You have a badge and guns as well. What happened, Barry could not handle being the one in charge?"** she grinned at the speedster who wasn't really paying attention to her, he was trying to track the persons movements outside the DEO via a tablet he had on him.

 **"He's still a detective, but since now there is our own alien murder department in the NCPD, I have a badge as well as authority over any case of that type. Which is fine considering we work with the DEO on that. As for guns, these are presents from Barry"** she removed the two cannons from their holsters showing them to her sister. She was pleasantly surprised, she took a liking to how the guns presented themselves including the delicate craftsmanship that was visibly put into them.

 **"These look amazing. I can see Barry has taste in choosing the theme for some things. Can you actually hit anything while shooting? I know I taught you to fire a gun but your aim was horrendous"** Alex chuckled.

 **"I can show you my aim maybe after we get this case resolved. Is this the guy?"** Kara removed the sheet that covered the body. Alex took a few good looks and nodded.

 **"Yes. Are you sure he's not a shapeshifter or some sort of alien that can take human form?"** she inquired.

 **"His body looks the same as a human, the ME did not find anything interesting. We can take a sample to run his DNA back at the DEO, but something tells me that this is the actual human and the person that is in the base right now is the fake"** Barry concluded. **"Here's why"** he showed the two women footage from near the alley the body was found. The man was seen enter the alley with a dark figure on his trail and then he exited the alley and nobody came after him.

 **"That does seem pretty damning. Come on, let's go back to the DEO we can settle this there"** Alex replied while moving toward the exit.

 **"Go, we'll come after we leave our clothes, badges and service weapons in the coded lockers at the NCPD"** Kara replied.

 **"We would get in trouble if we leave them unattended and they get into the wrong hands. We like our jobs"** Barry smiled. Alex nodded and got out while the two got a hair sample and sped back to the Lab.

 **"This hair sample is perfectly normal genetics wise. This guy was no alien or shapeshifter or anything of the sort. He was human"** Barry managed to let a DNA sequencer do its job while the two were changing.

 **"Let's get to the DEO. We might have more answers there"** The reply came and she nodded the two leaving through the open window. They got there before her sister which for some reason was late. Finally when she arrived Winn called the over to his station.

 **"The double was indeed all over the facility. This is what seems strange, in some areas that are normally interconnected, she shows up on one camera, while on the other 3 that were on the path to that place he doesn't. It's like he's popping in and out"** he showed them

 **"He's not. He's avoiding the cameras. Which could mean he would have gone other places not just where you tracked him, Winn"** Kara realized that this could be a threat to everyone on the base. She left and Barry was right behind her, but to their surprise after searching for the man that had last been seen near the fusion reactor that was powering the building, they couldn't find him. As they came back to the main floor, an explosion could be heard and the alarms started blaring. That however didn't last long, the building soon fell into darkness.

 **"What happened?"** Alex asked rushing back to Winn's side.

 **"The primary power conduit from the reactor to the rest of the building was severed. That was the alarm that I managed to see before it all went dark"** the man answered swiftly.

 **"The generators should be coming back online soon. At least for the power in here, the other sections should still be dark"** Hank told them as he phased through the door. He was on his way to see them when the explosion happened. As he finished, the lights started flickering and everything came back on. The screens were filled with warnings.

 **"Have you found that guy yet?"** Alex asked looking over Winn's shoulder.

 **"I don't think that you can. If he is indeed a shapeshifter then he could become anyone, I'm guessing the cameras weren't designed to track doubles in the complex"** Barry replied looking at other feeds.

 **"No they have not. Hank, what other species do you know that can shapeshift?"** Kara asked pretty bluntly.

 **"I only know of two. Green Martians and White Martians" He said looking at the speedster. Winn cut him off rather fast.**

 **"Speaking of white Martians, you know that one that we had locked up in the basement? Weaver let him out before you came back. It seems that they were talking about something"** he pointed at the camera

 **"There were metahumans that could shift as well, like one Hannibal Bates from my Earth, but I doubt he would have anything to do with a White Martian. So I guess that answers our question"** Barry made a grimace.

 **"We have two of them running around this facility. We have to catch them immediately. Who knows the damage they could do here"** Hank almost growled.

 **"Are we assuming the one that came here and released our prisoner had the same intention as that prisoner?"** Kara asked Hank leaving Barry to wonder about what they were talking about.

 **"That is an unknown. But yes, they could have potentially come here to kill me"** He answered. Another explosion sounded in the building and triggered a lockdown of the facility. The power surge that came with it shorted some computers in the main area which sparked a fire. Barry looked at Hank who was motionless, remembering that Martians, of any kind, had an innate fear of fire as Supergirl once told him. He noticed something strange, instead of jumping to help her sister extinguish the fire, Alex was looking at it almost in the same way that Hank was. Sure, Supergirl didn't really need any sort of help when doing that, her freeze breath would have been more than enough, but Barry had seen the way the Alex of his time acted, even if the effort was minimal, she would always jump in to give a helping hand. That to him seemed a bit out of character. He shrugged it off, but kept a mental note about the incident.

 **"We have a problem, the last explosion short circuited the Detention block power grid. The doors aren't magnetically locked anymore, just closed"** while Winn said that Supergirl could hear sounds of a door breaking and hitting the ground. The detention block was too far underground for her vision to be of any use.

 **"And we just had our first escapee. I heard a door being torn down. We have to go down there"** She added trying to force open the door from the main area to the access tunnel that lead to the cells.

 **"It's useless, Supergirl. With the lockdown in effect the doors to this room are shut and reinforced with magnetic fields to keep everyone out. I doubt you could open that door"** Hank added looking a bit bummed out.

 **"What kinds of magnetic fields?"** Barry asked having an idea

 **"The kinds that don't let anything phase through, Flash. If you`re thinking of doing that, don't. They might scramble your atoms so badly that you won't be able to reform. That's why I didn't try that myself."** Hank replied to the speedster.

 **"Can you keep Winn and Alex safe from anything that might come from down there and try to escape?"** he asked.

 **"I should be able to, if only a few escape. If all of them escape then now. I would be overpowered pretty fast"** the Martian responded. Another explosion was heard this time quite close to the surface, Kara managed to look in at where the damage happened being just in her range of vision.

 **"We should do something, the one that killed Weaver, he has access to all the cell lock codes, he let everyone out and the last explosion that we heard is a breach to the surface. Is there any way out of here while the building is locked down?"** Supergirl asked

 **"No. You would have to break through that door to be able to go outside" Hank pointed at a door on the far end of the room. The one which he had initially came through.**

 **"I don't intend to break it. I intend to disassemble it"** Barry went to the door and started to vibrate with part of it. He did not go further because the vibrations could be transmitted to the building and he didn't want to dissolve that. After a few seconds, in a circle radiating outward from his had the door had begun to vibrate only for him to pull his hand off. The section that had been vibrating immediately lost its cohesion and vanished. **"Now we have a way out. Let's go outside we need to try to stop these criminals from escaping"**

The buildings own security measures managed to delay them enough only to reach the large breach and find it empty. They both went down to the detention level and their face fell. Everyone who had been kept inside the DEO was now gone. This attack wasn't random, it was orchestrated by someone outside the agency who had inside information. That was the only thing that the two could think about at the time. As they moved back to the entrance Kara thought it appropriate to scan the building. Something was strange, in the parking lot in a car there was someone moving. When the two got there they immediately recognized the car. It was the one that Alex had come in the morning the murder happened. They were as surprised to find her trying to get out of the trunk of said vehicle.

 **"How are you here? We left you back with J`onn and Winn"** Kara looked at her sister breaking the bind that were restraining her.

 **"No, we didn't. Damn"** Before Kara could say anything the speedster flashed back to the control room where he found just one person. Winn who was unconscious. Hank and **"Alex"** were gone. The speedster managed to wake up the man who had a groggy face. **"What happened, Winn, where are J`onn and Alex?"**

 **"That wasn't me. I was stuck in the trunk of car for the last few hours ever since this started"** Kara had brought the real Alex up with her.

 **"I thought something was wrong when the other one looked at fire like it was her biggest curse ever. She must have been a white Martian too. Explains why J`onn is gone. Do you have any idea where they might have taken him?"** Barry asked while Kara was helping Winn get on his feet.

 **"See if you can detect his tracker. He had every DEO agent, including himself fitted with them"** Alex told them and seeing as Winn wasn't in any condition to work Barry stepped in fiddling with his consoles at a speed only Kara could keep up with.

 **"Got it. The signal is coming from an abandoned warehouse just outside the city limits"** Barry looked at it and almost face palmed **"What is it with bad guys and abandoned warehouses?"**

 **"Alex, take care of Winn, we'll be back"** Kara told her sister and flew out the same door that Barry had disintegrated earlier. The speedster was right behind her, keeping up with her flying. Barry sent the location of the warehouse to her bracer and sped up. He got there nearly a minute before her, but as he was taught by Oliver he looked around, assessed the situation and searched for clues as to where Hank might have been held.

 **"Find anything?"** she asked landing next to him.

 **"No, but the tracker shows him to be here so if he's not inside then maybe…"** Flash didn't get to finish his sentence. Kara already went up into the air and was scanning the place under the warehouse for clues. Much to her annoyance, there was something underneath but lined in lead. She could not see through it.

 **"Maybe he's underneath"** Kara finished **"There is a large space there but I can't see through it. I'm guessing that it's a trap, either that or its empty and we've been suckered into coming here"**

 **"Where's the entrance?"** he asked. Kara led him to a large metal plate. She pulled it aside and revealed something that could be described as a hatch **"All right. Open it, I'm going in, with my speed I should be safe even if they start shooting at me. Go in, check out the situation, come out and see what we can do"** he outlined his **"plan"** that seemed more like winging it that an actual strategic endeavor.

 **"Be careful"** She gave him a kiss and ripped the hatch out of the ground. The moment she did that their bracers started flashing red and green.

 **"Figures, Kryptonite. They knew that you would be coming for him so they thought maybe they can get a kidnap one get one free deal"** the speedster scoffed and went straight in. There was only a person he hadn't recognized and in the middle of the space an enclosure made out of what he could only classify as steel that contained kryptonite since it glowed green and in the middle of the enclosure was Hank strapped to what looked like a large pole with bindings that he had never seen before.

Barry didn't think twice, he ran straight at the enclosure phasing through it and phased the bindings off Hank. The person noticed him and started running toward the cage morphing into the familiar form of a White Martian. It didn't have enough time to get through the enclosure, Barry grabbed the Martian and phased through the bars and through the adversary, getting J`onn out of there and putting him outside. Kara followed him.

 **"Is he all right?"** Barry asked as Kara scanned the body of the knocked out Martian.

 **"He's just unconscious. This can't really be this easy"** she replied looking at Barry.

 **"There was just one white Martian in there and … color me surprised, there he is"** the speedster pointed at the huge figure that was running toward them holding what looked like a green dagger. **"Want some help?"** Barry smiled knowing that Supergirl could take him easily alone.

 **"No, I want to try some of the moves you taught me. You can stay and watch"** she stood up and took off her cape racing at the alien that was coming for them. He tried to stab her at first but she got rid of the knife rather quickly by almost ripping the hand that was holding it. With that part broken the knife fell to the ground, Barry raced toward it and with a little magic handy work made it disappear into nothingness. He discovered that the best way to get rid of the green rock was to phase it out of existence, it would leave no residue and no radiation that could harm Kara. Their Martian was waking up

 **"Flash, that Alex which was with us in the control room"** he started to explain but got cut off.

 **"We know. That's probably who Kara is fighting now"** He pointed at the blonde who was going toe to toe with the large white creature.

 **"Why aren't you helping her?"** the Martian looked at the Flash with a bit of a stink eye

 **"We have been practicing things together and she wanted to try them out. If she gets herself in trouble I'll jump in, but I see she's doing rather well"** Barry smiled at J`onn was watching the fight. Kara definitely had the upper hand, the movements that were taught to her by the speedster made her fighting style fluid and a pleasure to just watch. She dodged and blocked the Martian's heavy hits with ease, redirecting the impact and annoying the creature more and more. Her own hits however were precise and calculated, enough for their effects to start being seen.

The creature continued to attack her, but with her speed, and technique, Kara looked like she was almost dancing around it landing hit after hit in places that were seemingly unimportant. It started to wane, the swipes were sluggish, the attempted punches were slowing. J`onn could see that what she was doing had very much of a negative effect on the creature. He was pleasantly surprised to find out that Barry was training Kara in hand to hand. Alex had told him about what the speedster had done to her in their own sparring session.

After a bit the alien fell on the ground after a well-timed hit that came between the swipes straight to its head. A wave of wind was let off when the hit connected and the large creature fell to the ground not being able to move. Supergirl came back and smiled

 **"That was nice, not even half the workout I get with you, but still nice"** Barry looked at the power gauge on his bracer. She had barely lost 5% of her power fighting that large beast.

 **"Your power consumption was minimal. You didn't even really try to put your whole strength into one hit. I saw a couple of openings that would have spelled death over there, but I guess you didn't really want to kill him"** Barry applauded her

 **"No I didn't want to. If there were more of them I would have probably gone for the deadly approach though. I had no idea knowing hand to hand could be so useful. The last time I fought one of these guys I had to sit in a tanning bed for a few days. That's how much of my energy I depleted. Now I haven't even broken a sweat"** she smiled looking at the Martian that was on the ground **"Are you all right?"**

 **"Nice moves there, Supergirl"** he pointed at the creature which was now sprawled on the dirt unconscious " **That one got me by surprise, I don't remember much after being hit at the DEO. What happened over there?"** he asked.

 **"The internal defenses came on when we were flying out. They managed to stall us enough. Everyone that was being held is out. All of them escaped"** Kara looked at Hank with a grim face.

 **"That is unfortunate"** J`onn looked down at the ground **"We will have to keep an eye out for them, the next period will probably give us more surprises than initially offered"**

 **"Guys, you`d better come back here. The reactor that is powering the complex has gone into meltdown. It needs to be cooled or shut down or we'll have a large problem, about … 500 kiloton sized"** a voice told them through their comms.

 **"Can't you shut it down remotely ?"** Kara asked

 **"No, the power is cut in some of the places. I would physically need to be near the reactor to shut it down, but I can't get down there. The EM Fields are down, but there are still doors in place"** Winn told the two. Kara looked at Barry and the speedster disappeared in a gust of wind. Kara took the Martian and went on her way but at her own speed. Barry got to the agency and stopped in the control room to grab Winn. He didn't even manage to blink before he was in the front of the reactor control almost puking his guts out. He managed to get his bearings and closed down the reactor just in time.

 **"What happened, how did I get here?"** He asked looking at a smirking Barry

 **"I grabbed you and we both phased through the walls. Since the EM barrier was down I could do it without risk of getting shredded. That's how I got us both down here"** The speedster smiled to the person that was a bit disoriented.

 **"Whoa. I passed through a few walls with you to get here. I couldn't even see, I think I blinked during that time. Kara was right, you are fast"** Winn realized that if the Flash would ever be their enemy none of them would stand a snowballs chance in hell. He pushed a few buttons on the reactor control and the alarms stopped, the temperature inside the reaction chamber was beginning to stabilize.

 **"Hold on. We need to go back now and until this is fixed I'm afraid most of the doors are still closed"** Barry grabbed him and flashed back up where Supergirl had already got back with J`onn in tow.

 **"Nuclear meltdown averted"** The Flash quipped making Kara smile **"Now back to our regular scheduled programming"**

 **"I guess I'd better start to put this place back together with the help of the others"** the Martian sighed seeing the destruction that took place.

 **"Do you have a list of the people that escaped with known aliases and hopefully even pictures, if they have a human face?"** Barry asked Winn that sat down at his consoles.

 **"Sure, but what do you need it for?"** the question came back

 **"I'm a detective at the NCPD, remember? I can put out APB's on our culprits. You try to track them down through your means and in the meantime in case some officers spot anyone the info will come back to us as well"** the Flash grinned at Winn

 **"There you go. This should help"** the man gave him a long list of the people that were incarcerated in the detention wing. The profiles had pictures of their human faces and of their normal form. The ones that didn't have that were clearly not interested as passing as humans so the police wouldn't be of any assistance.

 **"Thank you. We should go back to the NCPD. Sadly we found out who Weaver was murdered by, we can close down that case now. Too bad that we will probably have our hands full later"** Barry said with a bit of disappointment on his face.

 **"We can handle it"** Kara smiled brightly holding his hand. Alex looked at her sister, she had been there searching for possible moles in the DEO and had been focused on something else until she heard the blonde speak. The way she said that showed a change in her demeanor that Alex had not seen before. She was more confident and cheerful that she had ever been. It was like as long as Barry was with her she felt that she could do anything.

 **"After seeing you take down that white Martian without even breaking a sweat, I can actually believe that"** the reply came from J`onn who took a seat **"I suspect she's not even fully trained, is she?"** he turned to Barry

 **"No. I would say her current skill now is about a 10th of what I can do. She can get much, much better"** Barry retorted

 **"We should spar sometime"** Hank told the speedster **"Alex told me what you can do, but I would like to see it for myself"**

 **"Of course. With or without powers ?"** the answer came making Hank look at him rather weird

 **"I would say without, because you do know that I have the same level of strength as Supergirl, right?"** he reminded the speedster

 **"J`onn, that doesn't matter. I have been training with him using my full power, to get a feel of the techniques. He can take anything I can dish out no problem. If he really puts his mind to it to hit me, his punches actually kind of hurt. Besides, you would probably be down in a couple of seconds at how fast he can move and how hard he can hit. For the sake of sparring, without powers would be something better to do, if you actually want to have a chance and not be on the floor in 2 seconds flat"** Kara rubbed her shoulder remembering how hard Barry could actually hit if he wanted to. That statement in turned provoked quite a surprised look from the Martian. He looked at Barry that had a goofy grin on his face, Kara seemed to know what she was talking about, this man in front of him who didn't look all that powerful could actually hurt her, which was something that he never considered.

 **"I will be looking forward to that. Thank you for the help today"** He extended a hand which Barry shook

 **"Always happy to help. Come on Kara, we'd better get back to work"** the speedster took her in his arms and disappeared in a flash of lightning.


	13. Suspicion

A few days had passed ever since the jailbreak at the DEO had occurred. Barry and Kara were on high alert for the eventuality that some if not all of the escapees might show up with a vengeance. Most of them were put there by her so it would have been obvious who they held a grudge for. They had gone by the Chiefs office to close the case of agent Weaver and also put out APB's on the aliens that could pass as normal humans. Some of them were very dangerous so they advised the officers if they were spotted to call it in immediately, keep an eye on the suspect but not engage at any cost. The potential loss of life could be very high, especially in the case of someone that had any sort of super powers. The two had called Cat and set up a meeting with her to explain what had happened, same place as before. The woman was expecting them when they walked in.

 **"Hello, Cat"** Kara smiled at the woman taking a seat

 **"Barry, Kara. Why was this meeting so urgent?"** she asked.

 **"This is something for your ears only"** Barry told the media mogul **"Its confidential data from the DEO and the NCPD. But we thought you should be made aware"**

 **"Understood. What's going on?"** she asked pretty worried, the two had never pulled the secrecy card before.

 **"You remember all the aliens that Supergirl had fought the last year. Those were kept in a government prison which a few days ago was attacked"** Kara told her friend.

 **"You mean all the aliens that were captured the last year are now loose again?"** Cat was surprised at what Kara had just dropped on her.

 **"Yes. Since we work with the DEO, we were privy to that information. Among the people that escaped were your old friends Leslie and Siobhan. That's why we thought you should know"** the blonde told her.

 **"Thank you. I know to strengthen security at CatCo now"** Cat replied.

 **"Also, we have a favor to ask. Those kinds of people might hide from the police, so an APB might not work. However your reporters are just people. I suspect you do know most of the persons that Supergirl has fought the last year?"** Barry asked Cat.

 **"I do, there are still pictures of some of them in the old editions of the paper which have been digitized. You want me to keep an eye out in case one of my reporters catches something about any of the people on that list, don't you?"** the media mogul replied smiling already thinking ahead.

 **"Yes. That was precisely what we wanted to ask. We don't care about the stories and what you publish about them, but if you get information that will help us find and capture them, we would appreciate if you contact us first"** Kara told her.

 **"Consider it done. I can only suppress that kind of information for at most 24 hours, or else the reporters will think I went off the rails"** She told the two truthfully. She did run a media conglomerate with focus on news ... her delaying the stories would have seemed out of character.

 **"That should do fine. As long as you manage to give us a lead, 24 hours will be enough to get an investigation going and maybe even capture the person"** Kara said with a steel determination in her eyes that surprised Cat. In only what she could determine a short while, Kara had grown up. She was stronger than she had ever been, determined and confident about her abilities. Barry had changed that in her.

 **"All right. I'll let you know if and when I have some news"** Cat got up

 **"Take care, Cat"** Barry told her bluntly **"Leslie and Siobhan might have gone underground, but you are still their main target. Be careful, please"**

 **"I will. You be careful too. That job you both have can be pretty dangerous, also I do remember that Siobhan had a bone to pick with you as well as me"** Cat smiled. Nobody before then had cared about her wellbeing except Kara. Now there was this nerd of a boyfriend she had that cared too. Somehow deep in her mind there two were something compared to family to her. They separated while the two superheroes went back to the NCPD to process evidence in the cases that were available, she went back to CatCo and made sure that security was on point mentioning that there were two ex-employees that might try to pay her a visit.

Alex had dropped by the precinct unannounced to see what the two were doing. They had had multiple murders that came in after the escape occurred but none of them were apparently tied into any one of their prisoners.

 **"Hey"** She greeted entering the lab where the two worked.

 **"Hey yourself, what are you doing here, is everything at the DEO in working order now?"** Kara asked her sister.

 **"Everything is pretty much restored, except the power systems which will take another week or so. The damage that was done to the power couplings in the basement was pretty much irreversible which means new ones had to be made and installed. We have found something that you won't like however"** Alex told her sister.

 **"What would that be?"** Barry asked for Kara.

 **"A sizeable chunk of your Kryptonite that we were storing here for Kal-El has disappeared in the confusion that the jailbreak created"** she said sighing.

 **"Well it's not like there weren't a few kilos in the possession of some madmen anyway. What are a few pieces more. Besides, whenever I can finish my research into the damn thing, I could probably make something for Kara that will literally enable her to ignore Kryptonite all together"** Barry told them

 **"Wait, what?"** Kara looked at him strangely **"You never mentioned that you were working on something like that"**

 **"It was supposed to be a surprise"** Barry face palmed when he realized his mouth had gotten the better of him. **"What you think I was keeping Kryptonite around to study, because I wanted you out of the lab or what?"** he chuckled.

 **"No, I thought it's to use on me if I ever go crazy again"** Kara told him the truth.

 **"Kara, it hurts you. Besides, I have another way that I might be able to nullify your powers in case you go crazy or get mind controlled. Not by poisoning you with Kryptonite"** Barry told the girl of steel prompting a large surprised look from both her and Alex.

 **"How could you do that? There isn't a substance that can produce anything similar to that rock"** Kara looked at him

 **"I never said it was a substance. It's radiation, more specifically, the exact type of radiation from a Red Supergiant. I think you know what talking about"** The speedster gave her a goofy patented Barry Allen smile. Kara was shocked.

 **"How do you know about that?"** she asked.

 **"It's obvious isn't it? Krypton had that kind of sun. In that sun you didn't have any sort of powers. It seems obvious to me that if you ever want to "feel human"** **the only way that won't damage your cells is exposure to the same radiation the sun on your home planet had. Both suns are beneficial to you. One gives you power, one takes it away, but they won't hurt you. Exposure to Kryptonite will. So you understand why I would work on something like that"** Barry explained in not so many words to his beautiful girlfriend.

 **"So that's why Kara didn't want to come train with me in the green room at the DEO"** Alex realized.

 **"That green room is also the reason her power level fluctuated so wildly. Sure, it indeed turns her human because it saps her powers, but once the energy in her cells is gone, it acts like nuclear radiation on human cells, damaging them to the point where they just die. The one that told Kara never to go in that room again was me, Alex. I wouldn't want her to get some sort of alien cancer or something similar"** Barry explained calmly.

 **"I didn't know it was so bad for her. Well, maybe we can have a red room if you succeed and we can spar in there"** Alex smiled at her sister. Kara smiled, but did not say anything. She wanted to be a surprise when she would be good enough to control what Barry was teaching her and she could spar with her sister without blowing her head clean off her shoulders **"Anyway, nothing seemed to be going on at the agency so I decided to visit. Also you did tell me that after that case you were going to show me how well you can shoot"** Alex snickered still thinking that Kara couldn't shoot fish in a barrel

 **"She did tell you that we practiced together and I showed her how to aim, right?"** Barry lifted his gaze from what he was working on.

 **"No she didn't. Come to think of it, I haven't seen you shoot either"** She quipped with a grin on her face

 **"We have a little time until the DNA sequencers finish their cycles. We can go now if you want"** Barry smiled at the blonde.

 **"All right then"** She put down what she was working on and the three went down to the firing range. The order was Alex, Barry and then Kara. They all loaded their guns and the DEO agent started firing. Alex had surprisingly missed a few of the bullseyes, it could be that because she was firing with Barry's weapon. She did not bring her own since this was a visit.

 **"Ugh, not bad, but not perfect"** She looked a bit disappointed at her own skills.

 **"My turn then"** Barry smiled loading both his guns. Alex looked interested at the stance he used. He did the same thing like at the tests he had done a while back when getting his certification for the shield. He smiled and took only one pistol and shot at the first three targets not missing a shot. The last one Kara already knew what was coming. He pulled out the second pistol and made his usual smiley face on the target. Alex was surprised when she reeled in the targets, He had not missed a shot and the smiley face was symmetric.

 **"Now you`re just showing off"** Alex smiled at the speedster. **"Why would you even dual wield to make a smiley face?"**

 **"Because I can?"** the answer came and Barry cracked. **"Kara, you`re up".** Kara took out one of her guns and followed Barry's example to the letter. First three targets center shots with one gun, the last dual wield and make a smiley. She stopped, reloaded her guns and put them back in their holsters. Alex had seen the shift in her stance and the confidence she had when she fired the weapons. She was not surprised that she could handle the large guns without any sort of recoil. When she saw the targets however her jaw fell. The shots were perfectly aligned just like Barry's, even the two smileys almost coincided

 **"How's that?"** she snickered

 **"Barry managed to get you to aim correctly? That's a miracle"** she started to laugh prompting Kara to pout

 **"Well I can't say that I didn't enjoy the way he taught me. It was very … exciting"** the reply came. Alex took a while to process that information and when she did the surprise on her face grew even more. She did however notice the bracelet that Kara was wearing and from the angle that her shooting managed to reveal she saw the Kryptonian writing.

 **"Barry, mind if I talk to Kara alone for a minute?"** she asked

 **"Sure, no problem. I'll be in the lab continuing to go through the evidence that we need to process"** Barry took his leave and was out of the room.

 **"What was that for? You know you can talk to me with him around, it's not like I keep anything from him anymore"** Kara was surprised that Alex did that.

 **"It's not about keeping anything from him. I just wanted to ask where you got that bracelet"**

 **"Barry gave it to me, for Christmas"** Kara told her sister bluntly.

 **"Did you add the Kryptonian lettering after?"** the question came.

 **"No, they came with the bracelet. He can speak the language, probably even better that you can"** the blonde told her sister who was shocked. She had tried for a long while to learn her sister's language and was proud of being almost fluent in it.

 **"He can speak it fluently? Wow, that's something. I thought I was the only one that actually knew the language beside you and Kal"** Alex came out of her shock.

 **"Not even that. Bracelets are something that is part of a Kryptonian custom. Every one of them has a different significance based on the design. Barry designed this himself. This pattern with this correlation of symbols is a declaration of love to the person that it is given to"** Kara blushed explaining to her sister the significance

 **"How would he know that? I don't even know about that. You never mentioned it"** Alex smiled at her.

 **"Because I didn't think I would see it again. In his time he got the designs off a lost crystal that was used in the Fortress. This design however was made by him. I saw the sketches. He wanted to give me something that would mean something to me on earth as well as in the tradition of my dead planet"** Kara explained to her sister and she understood very well how much that meant for the blonde.

 **"I guess you had quite a surprise when you received this"** Alex smiled and Kara nodded. **"I'm not even remotely shocked that he would do something like this for you, Kara. Ever since he showed up here I had this feeling about him. I guess I wasn't the only one"**

 **"He makes me the happiest I've even been for a long time. You weren't the only one. I love him, Alex and he loves me. I don't think there's anything more that I can be thankful for"** She smiled to her sister

 **"I thought so. You started to be way too bubbly, but not only that. You`re more confident in yourself and what you do. You love working with him both in and off costume. You look happy"** Alex drew a very obvious conclusion

 **"Yes, I am extremely happy"** Kara acknowledged **"I want him around for as long as I live"**

 **"You do realize what you just said, right?"** Alex smiled at the candor of the statement that her sister had made.

 **"Yes. I do"** She confirmed it once again. Alex was not prepared to head the blunt and short answer that her sister had given. She was expecting more like a series of blushes and trying to correct what was said, instead, she got a blunt convinced statement. Kara wanted Barry in her life for as long as she lived. As Alex was processing this information, the blonde's phone received a notification. It was a message from the speedster " _I_ _found_ _something_ " and that was it. **"I need to go back up, Barry found something in the pile of evidence we had to analyze"**

 **"Okay. I'm going back to the DEO then. Let us know if you find something related to our escaped criminals"** Alex got up

 **"Will do. Take care, sis"** Kara went straight up to the lab were Barry was fiddling around with a sample of unknown chemical that he found on one of the corpses. **"I got your message"**

 **"Come look at this"** Barry motioned to a substance that was found on one of the corpses.

 **"What am I looking at ?"** she asked after taking a few looks into the microscope.

 **"It's DDT. Who do we know that would leave a trail of a chemical that has been banned for 50 years?"** Barry asked her.

 **"Oh great"** Kara rolled her eyes remembering that while the first Hellgrammite was killed there was a second one that had been captured and kept in the DEO headquarters away from the world. **"This means that at least that murder is part of our repertoire now"**

 **"One in 30 isn't that bad. If there were all 30 and all done by different people, then we could say we had a problem"** Barry smiled.

 **"That's true also"** Kara saw the silver lining and began to smile. That same smile that Barry loved so much seeing.

 **"That seems to be it. The rest of the victims have normal wounds. There is no evidence of Alien involvement or metahuman for that matter"** Barry told the blonde

 **"Maybe the city went nuclear on itself after the escape. That seems too much to be just a coincidence doesn't it?"** She said sighing.

 **"Nothing is ever a coincidence. Not in this town, even if the murders seem unrelated and with human killers, I wouldn't know what to tell you"** the speedster said honestly

 **"There are so many people that escaped form the DEO, one person in particular that I am not comfortable about"** Kara replied

 **"Maxwell Lord, hmm?"** Barry almost read her mind.

 **"Yea, if you`re right then CADMUS might have already recruited him and he has got to work on the variants of Kryptonite that you found in your time"** Kara was visibly annoyed talking about the substance that was hurting her.

 **"Well at least now we have a way to detect the radiation"** Barry smiled at her.

 **"Thanks to you and our friends off world, that is"** Kara smiled. They arranged the evidence according to the case number and which detective had had them brought in. The one had had the DDT trace they kept them for their own. That was the case that came into their jurisdiction. It was late anyway when the finished so they sped back home and got something to eat as they usually did.

 **"So? What was up with Alex, or does she doesn't know that we don't keep secrets from each other?"** Barry asked as they were both in bed relaxing

 **"Nothing that important actually, she saw the bracelet and the Kryptonian symbols on it. She didn't know that you knew the language so she asked if I added them after"** Kara replied.

 **"Oh, I bet she was surprised that I actually know the language better than she does"** Barry laughed. **"She would be even more surprised to know that she was the one that taught it to me"**

 **"Oh she was the one that taught you? I thought I did"** Kara looked at him with a frown

 **"Nope. I wanted it to be a surprise for you just like that bracelet was. So I went to the only other person that could speak it and I didn't have to go away to Metropolis for a week for your cousin to teach me"** the speedster told her.

 **"Ah I see. What was the surprise for anyway?"** Kara asked and saw that he was kind of late to answer **"Barry?"** His face turned a bit red then a shadow of a memory long forgotten came over him, then the same face turned into an expression full of sadness. Kara noticed the changes on his face, but said nothing waiting for an answer

 **"I wanted to ask the other Kara to marry me in Kryptonian. That was the big surprise"** Barry finally told her. Kara now understood why he had been so reluctant and quiet for a while.

 **"I'm guessing you didn't get to that before she broke up with you, huh ?"** Kara looked at him with a gentle face.

 **"No, I didn't. Back then I thought to myself that I had wasted time doing something for a woman that did not want me in her life. You can realize yourself how stupid I felt spending almost 2 years learning every aspect of the language perfectly and when the time came, nobody was there to listen to what I was saying"** Barry replied to the blonde that saw a bit of pain in his eyes.

 **"Kind of like someone who wanted a certain speedster that had a fiancée?"** Kara tried to make a joke and it worked. Barry smiled and replied.

 **"Yes, kind of like that. Now I don't really think that learning the language was a waste of time. I do have someone to talk to and I saw how happy you were for a simple inscription. Besides, if you ever want to talk in that language, feel free. It might not be home, but that doesn't mean we can't make it feel like you`re home"** the speedster took the blonde in his arms looking into her eyes and kissing her forehead.

 **"Earth is my home now, that's why I don't really speak Kryptonian here. However, it's a very good language if you want to hide something from someone. Except Alex, of course"** Kara laughed raising herself and kissing him softly. He leaned into the kiss holding her close to him in his arms.

 **"I bet there are some things we can use against her that she doesn't know yet"** Barry laughed.

 **"Probably, but we'd better get those jokes in quick. She will apparently know the language fluently after a few years"** the blonde answered

 **"Time travel… it's a pain in the … timeline"** Barry wanted to say something else and the blonde understood given by the loud laugh she put out at his joke. They both calmed down and went to sleep. They had a busy day ahead of them, the case that was left was something that was on Kara's mind. In Barry's head however something else was going on, he struggled to recall in which exact order the Kryptonite variants appeared in his timeline. He wanted to be ready and make sure Kara wasn't hurt.

The next morning the couple was in the CSI lab as they usually were on a weekday. The traces of DDT that they found in the only case that was left on their table had gotten them nowhere. No firm had imported or exported the substance in the National City area for at least 6 months, it wasn't used for anything and no chemical plants could produce it as a byproduct of anything else. They were at a dead end, if the killer was indeed the Hellgrammite they had no lead to go on. That was true, until an unexpected call came from the one and only Cat Grant.

 **"Barry, I have gotten reports from my writers that there was someone in a bar on 23rd and Vine that seemed to have super strength. It doesn't seem like anything that I might know about but I thought I should give you a heads up"**

 **"Thank you, Cat. We might actually have a case precisely tied into what you just told us. We'll get right on it"** Barry responded

 **"Be safe"** the reply came and the line closed down.

 **"That would be a stroke of luck, could he be so stupid as to start a fight in a bar and show off his super strength?"** Barry asked her.

 **"No, that's the problem. He might be a bug, but he is intelligent. I'm sure he knows that if he creates a ruckus someone will eventually find him and you know who I mean by someone"** she told the speedster.

 **"This might simply be a simple bar brawl. We should go investigate nonetheless"** Barry told her and she nodded. They both put their coats on, took their guns and hurried to the bar that Cat had told him about. It was a normal neighborhood bar that was apparently ransacked. The information that Cat had given them seemed right. They talked to the persons that were still there, but most of the patrons present that night were not there. The story was the same for at least the people that they managed to talk to. A strange man came into the bar and did nothing else except tried to get something to drink. Two thugs tried to assault him and the next thing the people saw were the same two people flying across the room. The man paid for his drink and left.

 **"Do you by any chance have a glass or something that the man touched last night?"** Barry pulled out his badge

 **"No, sorry, all the glasses and mugs used are washed after use. We couldn't give you something like that even if you came 5 minutes after he left"** the bartender answered. It was obvious that for a neighborhood bar the joint was very clean.

 **"Thank you for your time, if the man shows up again, please contact the NCPD, he might be someone that we have been looking for, besides being very dangerous"** Kara smiled at him as they both went out.

 **"Well that was something that lead on the fast track to nowhere land"** Barry said visibly distraught.

 **"Still, we couldn't expect that a tip like that would instantly give us his location. He could not even have been here. It might just have been another metahuman with enhanced strength and without any evidence to test for DDT we're literally up a creek without paddles"** Kara shared his frustration. **"I would be surprised if it was indeed him. I haven't heard of a Hellgrammite that would just go into a bar for a drink"**

 **"You`re right, that sounds like the start of a bad joke"** Barry agreed as the two started to walk slowly toward the NCPD. It was a beautiful day outside and they could enjoy it. Nobody actually disturbed them. They always did their jobs to the letter, if there was something to be done immediately Singer would call them or the person who needed the evidence processed, they could literally not come at work except a few hours in the morning to go through the evidence that was gathered the day before. Of course this was leniency from the Chief which they did not want to upset. He made it possible for them to work together.

 **"Oh well, at least it's a beautiful day outside"** Kara smiled enjoying the feel of the sun on her face.

 **"Not as beautiful as you, Kara Danvers"** Barry kissed her gently, but he was hyper aware of his surroundings. He picked up on someone that was following them in the shadows and he increased his speed. Kara noticed

 **"Are we late for something?"** she asked sheepishly

 **"No, I just realized we need to get to the precinct, I might have another lead on our problem"** He told her but with the hand that was not holding his made a sign to behind. Kara understood what was going on.

 **"Wonderful, come on, let's take a shortcut"** she smiled dragging him into a dark alley. The man was indeed following them, he looked into the alley to be sure the two were still there and waited for them to turn a corner before he ran around. Barry and Kara were already on the top of the building watching him.

 **"Who is that guy ?"** the speedster asked. Kara took a good look at him and then she realized where she had seen that face **"Barry, it's the man that was supposed to have been killed in action. We got his print off one of the rifles that were used to try to shoot me"** Kara said. **"We need to catch him"**

 **"No, Kara, wait. He realized he lost us. Let's see where he goes first and who he meets"** the speedster told her **"I'm actually more interested in why he was following us. He tried to shoot Supergirl, fine, but two normally adapted police officers? That seems a bit out there"** Kara realized he was right. They weren't just normal people. They were cops and someone was following two cops around for apparently no reason.

 **"Do you think he knows who we are?"** she asked with a small hint of fear in her voice.

 **"I don't think so. But the people from the precinct do know that Supergirl and Flash help us out. I suspect that man whoever he is has been hired to keep an eye on us in case he might get to you again. Can you scan him from up here?"** Barry asked.

 **"Yeah. Give me a moment"** Kara focused her vision on the man. after removing her glasses **"He has a Kryptonite dagger on him on one side and a normal dagger on the other side"** She said

 **"Anything else?"** Barry asked

 **"No, just that. No weapons, no transmitting devices, his clothes however must contain Lead because I can't see through them"** Kara mentioned

 **"How very interesting, Supergirl vision proof clothes and one kryptonite dagger and a normal one. This is pretty strange, even for someone who wants to kill you. He must be stupid to think that he can get that close to use that on you"** the speedster reasoned.

 **"Maybe they weren't meant for Supergirl. The normal dagger can kill Kara Danvers as most people would think"** Barry didn't like where she was going with that but understood almost immediately

 **"So he waits until we split up, tries to knife you with the normal dagger, if that doesn't work he tries with the other one? I guess that would be one way to prove you`re Supergirl. You have a badge and guns. He should know that if he tries to stab you the first thing he is going to get is a bullet through his face. So that doesn't make sense either"** Barry thought out loud.

 **"Come on, let's follow him quietly over the roof tops. I can keep an eye on him from afar"** she told the speedster

 **"We should first change. You go because you`re slower. I'll keep an eye on him then we can switch. There are rooftops over here, but later on there aren't. It would be quite annoying if someone captures two CSI's flying on tape"** Barry told her. She nodded and left returning in her Supergirl costume. A second later he was in his Flash costume as they continued to trail the man that had followed them. They managed to stay concealed as they kept an eye on him finally getting to the end of his walk, entering an abandoned warehouse. The two didn't go in, Kara instead opting to spy on them via her super hearing and vision.

 **"It's Sam Lane. That man is meeting him. What would General Lane be talking with the man that tried to shoot me"** Kara whispered

 **"Maybe he doesn't like the fact that he didn't manage to take control over the DEO?"** Barry replied

 **"There's someone else here. I can't see her face, she's wearing a hood"** Kara told the speedster. **"Wait, that can't be right. That's Lillian Luthor. Lena's adoptive mother. What is she doing here?"** Barry opted to not answer, he did not have the answers to those questions. She turned her surprise face looking at the speedster who shrugged, the surprise was that when she looked back, they were gone. **"They disappeared"** she said disappointed **"I can't find any of them"**

 **"I don't think that's a problem. Something tells me that man will be back following us around. We need to be careful and keep an eye out for him"** Barry told her

 **"Yeah. Someone who is wearing a knife on his belt this day and age is simply not that menacing. However a Kryptonite knife can have only one target"** she replied looking worried.

 **"You"** Barry sped off the building Kara following him. They got back into their so called uniforms and walked back to their home. They kept an eye out for the tail, but didn't show up at least for the rest of the day.


	14. Anniversary

Their anniversary was right around the corner and Barry thought that it would be a good idea to take his girlfriend on an actual date, of course the donut and pizza dates that they had until now weren't bad, but an actual date that would have been something different entirely. He had first put some of his paychecks aside in order to surprise the blonde, but seeing that he had wealthy friend, he decided to call his younger self. He was out of the lab and walking on the street while Kara remained behind to do some work. He picked up his phone and dialed in the other earth, the ring on his finger making the connection.

 **"Hey"** a voice could be heard from the other line.

 **"Hey, Barry. I'm glad you answered and not your wife"** He sighed.

 **"Why would it be any different if she answered?"** the voice asked.

 **"Well, because what I wanted to talk to you is … private. I don't know if Caitlin wont somehow spill to Kara what I want to do so … you know"** Menace told his double.

 **"I see. I don't think Cait would say anything if you asked her not to. Especially if it's a surprise of something you`re planning. Still, I'm alone for now. What's up?"** the voice asked.

 **"It's rather simple. I kind of know you`re loaded so ... long story short, I want to ask for a loan"** His words were a bit muttered

 **"Oh. Well I have no idea how that would work. The money as far as I've seen is not the same. Unless I don't know, you can find something extremely valuable there that I can get from here and you can exchange it. Besides why are you asking me for a loan. You forgot that you left me everything you had when you left? Why would you need money for though?"** Flash asked.

 **"I want to take Kara out on a date. A date, date not just donut dates and that sort. Our anniversary is coming and I want to surprise her"** Barry replied truthfully.

 **"I see, so you want to buy her something really nice and take her to a fancy restaurant for dinner, huh ? Or maybe even go farther than that?"** the voice on the other side chuckled.

 **"Pretty much, but I already blew my savings on a present for her at Christmas so … I'm kind of in the dumps right now"** Barry answered.

 **"No worries. I saw the way you were looking at her at the party. You got it bad don't you ?"** the voice asked quite seriously.

 **"I'm in love with the woman. How worse can it get?"** Barry chuckled at his counterpart.

 **"Not much worse I'm afraid. Well until you marry her that is. No sweat. What is the most valuable thing that you can exchange right now over there with too much fuss?"** Flash asked.

 **"Gold, I guess. Why ?"** Barry answered.

 **"No, that's too bulky. For a decent amount of money id have to send you at least a kilo of that stuff and I can't hide that from Caitlin, although to be honest I doubt she'd mind. She has always wanted Kara to be happy"** the answer came.

 **"Diamonds then?"** He asked again. The voice was silent on the other side of the line for a while then he heard his younger self discussing something with Cisco.

 **"Get somewhere where nobody can see a bright blue vortex popping up"** the voice said and Barry ran toward the end of an alley that was obstructed by a few fences.

 **"Done"** he responded and in front of him a blue portal popped up out of which a small pouch fell to the floor. The portal closed almost immediately.

 **"I took some of the diamonds that we keep here at the lab for experiments. I'll order some more but that's the best I could do on such short notice"** the voice almost apologized

 **"How much is in there, anyway?"** Barry asked his double

 **"I would say around 600,000 my currency. It's enough for what you need, right?"** Young Barry inquired

 **"Dude, are you serious. This is what you call short notice and seemed like you were apologizing for? This is way too much. I don't even know how much the assets I left you were worth. I only needed a couple of thousand at the most"** Barry took the pouch in his hand and looked inside his eyes looking like he had seen the City of Gold.

 **"It's fine. You already know how much money we have. So that helps?"** Younger him asked.

 **"Immensely. I think this is enough to cover all the dates for the next 10 years"** He cracked looking at the small pouch in his hand.

 **"Good. Don't worry, I won't say anything to Caitlin and neither will Cisco. If you ever have money issues come to me. We have way more than we will ever need here so if I can help you with anything, don't hesitate to ask. Besides, I'm happy that you two are together. Kara deserves someone to love and who loves her. I don't care if that only covers one date, just make sure to make it one she will never forget"** the voice said with a candor that made Barry smile.

 **"Thank you. Truly. Now I have what I need to give her a beautiful night out. I just hope we don't get swamped by aliens and the likes"** Older Barry smiled

 **"Don't mention it and don't consider it as a loan. Consider it as a start to the "get Barry and Kara together" fund. Besides, it can't be a loan if it was your own money to begin with"** Younger him chuckled in the communicator followed by a laugh from Cisco. **"Good luck and I hope she likes what you have in store for her. Think about it and plan ahead. I know me very well, you would never ask for money from anyone unless it was something that it was of the utmost importance. Kara fits into that category, quite well. Go big, show her how much she means to you. I can send you more if for what you have in mind it's not enough"** The voice was visibly excited that the two were getting along so well.

 **"Thank you. I'm going to get everything ready. I am going as big as I can go without looking like a pompous asshole. She means the world to me. Take care"** Old Barry spoke

 **"You? Looking like a pompous asshole? Never. But I know that if you came to me she deserves it. Which is not surprising, if you love her half as much as you told us that you love your Kara from the erased timeline then … I have a pretty good idea. Remember, you have any issues, you know who to call. Take care yourself"** Younger Barry replied and he closed the line.

The speedster went to the closest diamond exchange to get rid of the precious stones that were thrown through the breach. Much to his surprise the exchange rates were way higher in his world, the diamonds that his younger self sent were valued at over 2 million dollars. It appeared that with the arrival of certain factions, diamonds were no longer controlled by a few firms like they were in the past but they were a very valuable and sought after commodity. Barry smiled. He went to the National City bank and opened an account and put all the money he got in there keeping a few thousand on his person, then returned to the NCPD. With a bouquet of roses in his hand.

 **"What took you so long?"** Kara smiled looking at him.

 **"I wanted a little air. Besides, I had to go get these for the most beautiful woman in National City"** He smiled giving her the flowers. Kara looked at him surprised.

 **"Thank you. What are these for?"** She asked with a sheepish face blushing profusely at the compliment he just gave her.

 **"What? I can't bring flowers to my beautiful girlfriend without a reason? Come on"** Barry laughed **"Although, I do have a reason, since it's our anniversary"** Kara looked at him and realized he was right. She totally forgot about that. She was not the person to keep track of stuff like that, probably because she never had a steady relationship that actually got to an anniversary, or because she was always out saving the city not really caring about what day it is.

 **"I kind of … forgot"** she excused herself looking rather down

 **"I didn't. I will probably forget too at some point, to be fair every day that we spend together seems like an anniversary to me, but that doesn't mean a couple can't be really special"** the speedster smiled brightly at his beautiful girlfriend.

 **"I didn't even get you anything"** she pouted.

 **"Not a problem, although I do have some things to take care of, so ... would you mind covering for me for a bit ?"** He asked.

 **"No of course not. What do you need to do?"** She asked.

 **"That would be telling. But I do want to ask something else. Would you go on a date with me?"** he asked nonchalantly looking at Kara who stared at him with large eyes.

 **"You already know the answer to that, you dork. Of course I would go on a date with you. Remember I was the first one who asked you out"** she smiled, then realized that the stuff he had to do was more than likely connected to their date **"Barry Allen, what are you scheming?"** she chuckled

 **"Wait and see, Girl of steel, wait and see. So I take it that's a yes?"** He smiled.

 **"Yes, but when?"** she asked.

 **"Considering today's Friday and we have the whole week end, how about tomorrow"** He looked at her

 **"Sure, tomorrow ... when?"** She asked again.

 **"Just tomorrow, you`ll see. I need to go take care of a few things, so I might be gone for a bit"** He chuckled

 **"I'll cover for you and call if there's an emergency"** she smiled at him. In a flash of lightning he was gone with the usual large gust of wind that started to ruffle a few papers. Ever since they started working together they had to get paperweights for obvious reasons and those came in real handy right now. **_"What could he be planning, well of course he wouldn't tell me, it was supposed to be a surprise, but he knows how I can get when someone is keeping secrets. If he would have disappeared and tried to make it a surprise I would probably get angry at him for keeping something from me or just start pacing and worry as to why he has been gone and where. He knows me so well"_** She smiled **_"I love that man"_**

Barry had a pretty nice idea of what he wanted to do, but for that he needed energy. He had to run over the ocean and get reservations at a hotel in the Maldives. He had been looking at the islands and their resorts quite a lot and he knew that they had everything that he could plan for. The hotel was very close to the beach, but he didn't like the fact that there were so many people. Nonchalantly he asked if there are private beaches around that he could rent for a day or two so that he could be alone with the woman that he loves.

The concierge was very helpful and accommodating, recommending that he take the private beach which was between the cliffs at the hotel which, at his requirement, could be staffed for a private dinner for two people. There was a small alcove in the cliff away from view that housed the small venue where two people could have a romantic dinner in private. Barry paid everything in advance telling them to stand by for that dinner that he had planned, and gave them an idea what he actually wanted, with excruciating detail. He made sure that the food was prepared in advance and left in the venue, he assured the concierge that he did not need any sort of waiter or anyone. Considering the sheer amount of food was enough to feed a normal family for a week, he thought that she might not want anyone around while they stuffed their faces. He also got the honeymoon suite for that night, knowing that Sunday they would both have to come back as they had work. That seriously tired him, he got something to eat and ran back to National City, going back to their place and going through Kara's clothes. He had an idea about measurements but he needed to make sure. He went in town and bought a large suitcase. Now all he did was to find a bathing suit and a nice dress and shoes. Also maybe a piece of jewelry and last but not least underwear.

The bathing suit wasn't hard to find. He got her a white two piece that would have probably made her blush profusely since she never wore anything like that, he did realize that she might be embarrassed wearing it in public, but since it would be just the two of them, it should have been enough. The dress was different though. He opted for a black satin evening dress, half cut down the back and legs, with a pair of black stilettos. That took a while to find, even with having her measurements it proved to be nothing short of challenge, but Barry liked challenges. He was drawing on what he had bought the other Kara on an occasion similar to this but also on something that he wanted to see her in. For jewelry he opted for a small white gold necklace encrusted with sapphires. The beautiful blue stones would certainly bring out her eyes. He got himself a black two piece suit with a white shirt and two cufflinks with the same sapphires as her necklace. Once again he bought 20 pizzas and ate them all, running back to the hotel and leaving the suitcase in the care of the concierge, telling the man that he would be back tomorrow. The room was also rented from early morning until Sunday morning, he did leave note however that if they were still in the hotel at the time they should have vacated the room, the concierge should bill him for another day and not disturb them at all.

With everything prepared he came back at the NCPD a whopping 4 hours later, prompting worried looks from Kara.

 **"Wow that took you a lot of time. Mind letting me on why were you gone for that long?"** She asked sheepishly.

 **"You will see tomorrow, beautiful"** He quipped leaving her without any sort of retort **"This probably won't be something that we do often due to the fact that this city can be attacked anytime by anyone, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy ourselves once in a while"**

Now Kara was really curious at what he had planned for the next day, but stifling her inquisitive nature she replied simply

 **"I will see tomorrow then. Now get back here and give me a hand with these"** She pointed at the two files that were still on her desk, Barry had forgotten completely that she had worked all day and before he got on the cases, he flashed out and brought her a box of donuts and a coffee.

 **"Thanks for covering for me"** He smiled at her brightly while she was stuffing her face with the donuts that were put on her table.

 **"Of course. How could I not cover for you when you were planning something for us to do, which was supposed to be a surprise, but in reality it wasn't. Just curious, why did you tell me at all?"** she smiled

 **"You mean why didn't I keep it as a complete surprise? I probably would have if it took me like 10 minutes to put together, you would have never known. But considering I had to leave for quite a long time and you had to cover for me and considering that the last few months we've been pretty much tied at the hip, me leaving for a few hours would have been something that would make you worry. I didn't want to do that needlessly, beside I only said it's a date, I never said what it would entail, so I fully expect it to be a surprise"** Barry replied bluntly

 **"Thank you for that. You are right, we have been together every day and after I started working with you the time that we were apart was rarely more than an hour. You leaving for how much you did just now would have made me pretty worried"** she acknowledged the fact that he was right and appreciated him telling her in order to keep her mind at peace. They finished their work and put their files in order letting the detectives know that the evidence that was brought to them was finished to be processed. From home, Barry called Alex, he didn't try to hide what he was saying to her, Kara had super hearing anyway.

 **"Hey, Alex. Anything new at the DEO?"** He asked.

 **"Nothing, everything seems to be quiet, Winn is however keeping an eye on the trackers, maybe we find some of our escapees"** she responded

 **"That is what I have called about actually. Could you make sure National City doesn't end up as a huge crater for two days?"** the speedster inquired pretty seriously

 **"Yeah, sure. Why? You don't want me to call you if something happens?"** Barry could almost see the smirk on Alex's face.

 **"No, just asking, because we won't be here and neither will our phones. So it's more like a "We're out of town, you`re on your own"** **kind of a situation"** he replied

 **"So where will you be?"** now her own curiosity was getting the better of her.

 **"I can't say that either. All I can say is that I decided to ask Kara out on a proper date and that entails that we aren't disturbed, by anyone"** Barry smirked. The blonde heard that and it only made her even more curious. It was clear now that wherever the speedster planned to take her was not in National City.

 **"Ah I see, so it's that kind of date"** she then continued with a low voice **"remember to have protection"** Barry rolled his eyes hard at that prompting a very heavy blush from the blonde

 **"Thanks, Alex. You just ruined it"** Barry smirked. **"Of course we will. She will have Supergirl and I will have The Flash. How's that for protection"** he joked making Alex explode into laughter from the other side of the line. Kara however almost wanted to hide under the bed of how embarrassed she was. She had no clue that Alex would go straight to that when a date was involved, although she was famous for most of the embarrassing moments in her life.

 **"Ok, ok. You crazy kids go have fun. We'll make sure the city isn't gone by the time you come back"** Alex quipped stifling her laughter.

 **"Kids? Alex, do I really have to remind you that I'm even older than you are?"** Barry threw a curve ball

 **"I know old man, but when it comes to love, you still act like kids. So I'm technically right. Have fun and Kara, I know you`re listening, I will expect a full report when you come back"** she chimed making Kara laugh.

 **"You might get it ,you might not, sis"** She managed to utter in the phone.

 **"Have a great weekend"** she told then as she closed the line. Now everything was set for them to go on their date.

 **"National City can take care of itself for two days"** Barry smiled to his girlfriend who barely stifled her curiosity about what the speedster had planned for the week end.

 **"Why two days, I thought this was a simple date, not a weekend away"** She looked at him smiling

 **"Why not both?"** he quipped.

 **"Do I need anything special to wear for our date, then?"** she looked at him realizing this was not something ordinary

 **"I've already taken care of that. Don't you worry yourself"** He grinned. Barry was tired, so instead of doing their normal routine the two just went to bed. She had no idea but running all the way to the islands, twice, was nothing that was short of energy consuming.

The next morning, he woke up early, he didn't fidget or move, he was just looking at the beautiful blonde that was sleeping in the bed next to him. It was a sight that he had encountered many times before, but had lost in the vortex of time. Now he was back here, with her. It didn't take long for Kara to wake up, her super hearing picked up his heart rhythm quickening as he had woken up already.

 **"Good morning"** he smiled toward a sleeping Kara **"Ready for our date ?"** he smirked

 **"Good morning to you too. I've been ready since last night, I'm really curious to find out what you have in store. The fact that you were gone so long makes me already believe this date isn't anywhere near National City"** she smiled at him with sleepy eyes.

 **"And you would be perfectly correct, I thought it would be nice that we weren't anywhere near the city so your super hearing couldn't pick up any cries for help or something of the sort. I know you, Kara. I know myself. We would both run out on our date if someone was in danger in the blink of an eye. I would prefer if that doesn't happen, at least for this one"** he grinned leaving Kara surprised. The two took showers and got dressed, she didn't know why Barry would have asked her to wear something that was a bit waterproof, but she had an idea.

 **"I'm done"** She told him while coming out of the bedroom. He was waiting for her in his Flash costume with a small bag beside him

 **"I do need some civilian clothes. Mind holding on to these for me?"** he inquired

 **"Not at all, but if we're going on a date why would you need your Flash suit?"** she as she grabbed the bag, Barry grabbed her and they were off. She could keep up at least at the start with the insane rate of speed that the world was going by around them.

 **"You should close your eyes, we're about to hit water"** he told her and she made a surprised face, but did as he asked. Soon after she started to feel droplets of water hitting her face and the bag she was holding. Opening her eyes she saw for the first time what it looked like when Barry was running on water. It was beautiful, the particles that were stirred up gave way to beautiful colors as the light hit them, behind him there was a large column of water that was produced as he ran, almost like a wave. The trip took a bit, all the while Kara was mesmerized by the light that was coming off the water spouts he was producing while running. They stopped on a beach which considering that it was empty looked like it was in the middle of nowhere. Barry put her down and changed into his suit.

 **"Wait here a bit, I need to go get some stuff done. I'll be back in one minute"** she nodded as he disappeared. Kara started to walk slowly on the beach waiting for her speedster to come back, which he did precisely 59 seconds later. He had done to the concierge to let him know they had arrived. The man told them that their room was ready and the bag that he had left had been taken upstairs. Barry went and took out the bathing suit and left it on the bed making sure the suitcase was hidden. He put a lead panel in it so even if Kara would want to scan it she would come up empty handed. **"Ok. Hold on"** he smiled flashing Kara up to the room he had rented for the week end. **"I thought it would be nice to spend some time at the beach, so … here we are"** He smiled. Kara looked at him strangely

 **"You do realize that telling me nothing about where we went means that I don't have a bathing suit with me, right?"**

 **"I do, that's why you have one on the bed in the other room. I'll change into mine and we can go down"** He smiled flashing around the room. Kara went to the bedroom and her face fell. She had never worn something as revealing as that bathing suit. She had no problem with her body, but she was shy about it. She did put it on to see how it would fit.

 **"Barry, I can't wear this. It's ... way too ... not there"** She came out of the bedroom and was met by the sight of a speedster only in a pair of shorts which was his own bathing suit. Barry gawked at her the moment she came into the room. She had a lean, beautiful body, but he managed to stop himself and speak.

 **"I don't think it matters, in the end you`re going to wear that just for me"** He laughed. **"I have seen you before in skimpier clothes"**

 **"What do you mean, just for you? If we are going to the beach that means other people will be there"** she fidgeted.

 **"We're not going to the beach that I set you on when we first came here. That's the public beach. I might have rented one where we can be alone for the day"** He was scratching the back of his neck.

 **"You did ... what? You rented a private beach just for us?"** Kara could not believe her ears **"Why would you do that?"**

 **"I knew you were shy about that"** he pointed at the bathing suit **"So in order for you to enjoy the sun and the beach I thought being alone with me would stop you from reminding that you`re actually shy in the presence of anyone else but me"** He smiled **"Shall we go?"** he motioned toward the door extending a hand.

 **"Yes"** when she realized that the only person that would see her was him she calmed down instantly. Barry flashed them to the beach where a blanket was already sprawled out on the sand with a bottle of something she didn't recognize **"Barry, this is beautiful"** she looked at the setting and its idyllic landscape. She looked at the place they were in now, the beach was amazing and the sun that came down was doing wonders for her. Even though she was at full strength she always enjoyed the feeling. **"What made you think about a trip to the beach?"**

 **"Ever since we've been together, it was all donut and pizza dates, with our phones at the ready in case something was going on in the city. I thought a few days away from all that, just for us, would be the way to have an amazing time together"** the speedster smiled at her kissing her lips softly

 **"It is nice not to worry about being called away at any time"** she smiled **"I like the idea of just you and me and a solitary beach just for us"**

The two took a first dip and in the middle of it they started a water fight which Barry clearly won, him vibrating his hand in the water soaked Kara instantly with a large spout that seemed more of a firefighters hose than anything else. She slapped the water once hard producing a wave that almost hit him, but not quite. Barry phased through it as dry as ever.

 **"Well that's not fair"** she chuckled **"The water that I throw at you passes through and even if it hits you, you can dry yourself instantly"** the next moment Barry lunged at her and knocked her to the ground getting himself and her wet from the wave that went over them

 **"Sure I can, that's if I don't want to get wet"** he grinned making Kara smack his arm playfully. He vibrated it just in case, but she didn't hit him too hard. He kissed her as they were both on the sand, sadly at that time that was a bit of a mistake, a large wave killing their kiss in its tracks. After the water passed the two started to laugh looking at each other. They spent the morning collecting seashells and making sandcastles, if you would watch them from afar you would be surprised at how much they acted like children, for Kara this was something she had not had ever since she became Supergirl, a few days of not worrying and not being on call. She loved it. They didn't use their powers much, even if it was a private beach they couldn't risk getting discovered, even with that after a bit Kara's stomach was grumbling.

 **"It seems that it's time for lunch"** he took her in his arms and deposited her on the blanket to dry off. **"Be right back".** He left and came back in less than two seconds with what looked like picnic baskets, also the usual donuts were there. **"I did get something special, but since we both eat like we've just survived a plague, we should finish the donuts first"** He grinned and Kara smiled. As they were eating Kara remembered something that she wanted to ask.

 **"Hey, there was something you skirted away from when we talked last time. The way you went back in time to try to save your mother?"** She told him finishing the extra donuts. He did as well and motioned for her to put her head on his chest and opened the other picnic basket. It was filled with fruit and a container that had something white in it.

 **"I did say that was a story for another time, yes, but it's not happy are you sure you want to hear it now?"** he replied while Kara getting the point lied down.

 **"I do. I do want to find more about the man that I love, that's what dates are for are they not?"** She smirked only to have her mouth stuffed with a large strawberry that had sour cream on it. She was surprised, but loved the taste, so she started to munch on it while Barry continued to speak.

 **"Well, yes. All right then"** he took another strawberry and fed it to her **" If that is what My Lady wants then that is what she will get"** Kara enjoyed being fed and the worriless state that they were both in. It seemed that for the day there was no National City, no villains, no criminals, no police work. Just him and her, two people in love enjoying their time together.

* * *

AN : To wall : i put them in bold because its easier to show some things with style than writing next to them " she thought to herself" or "he thought to herself" that's an annoying repetition. Also, dude, make an account already so i can PM you directly ROFL.


	15. Date

**"It was a split decision. At one point I went back in time and the damage that I did almost got Cisco killed. But after Zoom killed my dad, I guess the pain was too great to think about other consequences"** He started, while Kara was happily munching on the fruits he was feeding her. **"That morning I ran back in time, it wasn't something I thought I could do because it wasn't just the last day. It was almost 14 years into the past. But I tried anyway and managed to actually make it thought. I arrived that night when my mother was killed. In the ensuing fight, I got my younger self out of there and prevented the Reverse Flash from killing my mother"** This was the first time Kara had heard this story.

 **"Neither of you two mentioned that. I never knew that you had your mother killed when you were young"** She looked at him

 **"Yeah, when I was 11, that night I saw lightning in the house, a combination of red and orange and a man with red eyes in the lightning. He managed to kill my mother and Henry, you met him already, went to prison because the cops found him over her body trying to keep her alive and made a bad judgement call"** He replied, she would think that him telling that story would be painful, but his face was serene and he held her hand.

 **"You can stop if this is something you don't want to recall, I don't want to spoil this date because of my curious nature"** Kara reminded him. They were here to enjoy themselves not to be the bearer of bad memories

 **"It's all right, Kara. You`re here with me, I don't have a problem with this particular story, I have told it so many times that it became more like a tale than something painful"** Barry answered smiling at her. He leaned in and kissed her lips that had a strawberry taste. **"Unknown to me at the time, the reverse Flash ran out of power and was stuck in time. He ultimately created the person he hated so much. He wanted me to get faster, so I could open a vortex back in time for him to get home. But that didn't happen. Anyway, back to my story"** Kara was enjoying herself, she loved this, finding more out about what the man she loved had gone through, alone on a beach with the sun shining and being fed, she had no idea that something could feel as perfect as she was feeling light now **"After I saved her, I returned back to my time. Only it wasn't my time. Things had changed quite drastically. Both my parents were alive and I was living with them. However, Joe didn't have it so well. Francine, his wife, had died while giving birth to his son. That led him into heavy drinking. Iris and Wally moved out of the house as fast as they could to get away from him. He was a wreck of a man, not by far the strong person that had been my adoptive father"** Barry continued

 **"So the change that you did in your own life had backlashes in the whole timeline?"** Kara asked looking at him, trying to understand what he was telling

 **"Pretty much. Iris was a cop and Wally, to my biggest surprise had become the Flash. The differences didn't stop there. Harrison Wells was alive and so was his now wife, Tess Morgan, but they weren't in Central City. The large building that you know as STAR Labs, that was owned by Mr. Cisco Ramon of Ramon Technologies"** Barry smiled remembering how Cisco looked in a suit all professional compared to his normal goofy friend.

 **"Wait, are you telling me that Cisco was the biggest tech contractor in town? That's very different compared to the one we know"** Kara looked at him with large eyes.

 **"Yes. He was a millionaire and he was indeed the largest tech provider in town. He was helping Wally, but he was not part of the team. Wally was alone only with his sister who helped him in doing Flash stuff. That was part of the surprise. The other part was that Caitlin wasn't even part of any team. She was a mild mannered pediatric ophthalmologist. She had no idea of what was happening around her"** Barry told her

 **"Wait, you`re telling me that Caitlin had none of the specialties she had now but was just an ophthalmologist ? Now that is weird. I could never imagine that woman without the array of specialties she has under her belt"** Kara was genuinely surprised at how the story evolved.

 **"That's what I thought. But she did help. There were other people that had powers back then. Different people than the ones I had already fought. One was a guy by the name of Edward Clariss, he had received speed powers and now he was a villain. Once I got the team together they managed to come up with a way to track him. Caitlin was a large part in that effort. Even Cisco was impressed that she had such observational skills for what her work was. I didn't really want to live in that timeline. Every time I was using my speed the time set even more, making me lose my memories of the timeline before. I had forgotten almost everything and I didn't want that. The pain I felt at the time was that she didn't know who I was, I loved her and she had no idea. Everything that I had seen made me take the opposite decision. After spending a few more days with my folks, I decided to go back and fix everything"** the speedster told the blonde who found the whole thing fascinating. She knew that time travel was possible but actually hearing about an alternate timeline that was created because of his meddling was something else.

 **"So that's what made you try to undo what you did. With the timeline setting you were losing all the memories you had every time you were using your speed"** She looked at him and took his hand in hers.

 **"Yes. I ran back just before I had stopped the man from murdering my mother and literally stopped myself from helping her. You can imagine how I felt when telling my younger self that he should let his mother die at the hands of that madman. But after I did that … when I returned I found out that things had still changed. The timeline was almost back to the way it was, but not completely"** he explained

 **"How would that be. If the event that you had prevented gets redone then everything should return back to normal, shouldn't it?"** Kara asked surprised. She had a little bit of experience with time travel theories from her pod, but this was nothing like she had studied before because it was something practical, not just a theory.

 **"A friend explained it to me later"** He made a ball of sand and turned it into glass with one lightning bolt from his hand **"Imagine this ball as the original timeline"** He hit it on a rock and the ball cracked and split into pieces. **"That is what happened when I went back and saved my mother"** He started to put the ball together only for Kara to realize that it was still cracked.

 **"I see. The ball is still not the same as it was. It is whole, but the cracks are there"** she told him

 **"Precisely, those cracks were what happened next. Joe and Wally had a large falling out with Iris. She got her own apartment and left. I was not alone in my CSI job anymore, I had a partner who was a brit. Cisco, who before me meddling in the timeline didn't have any powers received his Vibe powers and, worse of all, Caitlin got ice powers. That all happened because of my screwing with the timeline"** the speedster told her with a sickened smirk, phasing the pieces of glass out of his hand.

 **"I see. So because you tampered with time, that was the primary reason that Caitlin turned into Killer Frost. I Kind of figured from the first time you told me that you were feeling guilty about that"** Kara told him truthfully raising up her head and kissing his lips to wipe off the smirk. She was successful, the moment the two kissed a smile reappeared on his face.

 **"Yea. But that wasn't the end of it. Because I meddled with time, somehow the greatest enemy I had, Zoom, was never killed. It was a chance in, I don't know how much, for that to happen. He became a crack in time and restarting tormenting me. That was why I felt so guilty as you have pointed out before. I could have probably helped Caitlin quench Killer Frost. But what happened after was still my fault, because of my meddling Zoom was still alive"** Barry looked off into the distance. Story time seemed to have taken quite a while. He took a look at his clock and saw that dinner time was approaching.

 **"Now I'm glad that I can't travel through time. I don't think I could bear all the responsibility of being the cause of everything you seem to have set in motion"** then she thought for a bit **"Actually I'm wrong. I think if anything would happen to you, I probably would go back and change everything just so you could be back with me"** Kara told him truthfully making his eyes go large. **"What? Barry you are the most important person in my life now. You`re telling me that you wouldn't go back in time in a second to fix everything if something were to happen to me?"**

 **"I would and I did"** Barry told her prompting a quizzical look from the blonde **"We were fighting some sort of telekinetic alien back on your earth. He wasn't much of a threat, all he could do was throw stuff at us and throw us at each other. But someone intervened, there was an attack similar to the one we had that day at L Corp. The alien managed to redirect three kryptonite bullets straight into the back of your skull. Of course, you couldn't recover from that. So I came back to my own dimension and ran back in time one day to prevent everything "He told her and she realized why he had been so adamant in protecting her and keeping her safe**

 **"But now you can't do that anymore. Which explains why you put me first and try to protect me from anything"** She chimed in

 **"Yes, that's right. I know that might annoy you, Kara, but I love you so much that I don't think I could take losing you again"** Barry told her truthfully.

 **"It did annoy me at first. I thought you were just as overprotective as Kal. But you weren't. You let me do my thing, never stopped me and was always by my side. That's one of the reasons I don't mind you being like this. Sure, I might be pig headed and sometimes even run face forward into danger, but all you did and what the other Barry did helps a lot when taking care of myself. Besides, you`re always with me, you have no idea how good it feels to know that someone has your back no matter where you are. Those two had always had each other's back. They have been partners since they started in the superhero business. You and I were always alone. I had Alex and Winn, of course and you still had Cisco and Caitlin, but in the superhero department we were always alone. We didn't have people to share what we can do and what we feel. Nobody except someone with powers could fully understand you and me"** Kara spoke softly lying next to him on the blanket as the two looked at each other.

 **"Yes, that's true. But that's over with. Now we can share with each other everything and anything. Even if it's something as stupid as not wanting to go to a public beach dressed in a beautiful bikini because you're shy about yourself"** Barry started to laugh and Kara clocked him one in the arm withholding her strength. He did get it however and started to vibrate only for her punch to steer up a minor wind event as the hit was blocked **"What? You know that's what you do. I have no idea why either, you are beautiful Kara. I would even venture to say that wearing that you`re down right hot as all hell"** She blushed red all over hearing what he had said

 **"I always had to keep the mild mannered reporter look and the glasses so that the people didn't see my real identity. I guess some things stuck"** She grinned at him and caught him checking his watch again. **"Do we need to be somewhere else at a specific hour?"** she inquired

 **"Yes, but later"** He smiled and took her in his arms kissing her lips **"For now, watching the sunset with you is something that I would consider perfect"** He smiled motioning at the big red ball that was slowly going into the ocean. His hand was gently caressing her back giving her goosebumps. Kara was as happy as she could remember being in a long time. This was something that would stay with her. This image, the two of them on a plain blanket, in each other's arms watching the sunset. She had butterflies in her stomach that were put there by the man who now held her tight. Time passed, the sun was now down completely and it started to turn dark outside. He put his hand on her stomach and felt a small grumble.

 **"Hmm, I didn't think that would happen so fast"** Kara said a bit annoyed **"It's not like I've been fighting aliens all day"** Barry started to laugh.

 **"No aliens, just fighting your blushes all day. It's fine, we should go get ready for dinner anyway"** He got up and extended a hand to help her get up. She took it and they both flashed back to the room. Kara took a shower and came out wearing nothing except a towel.

 **"Well, I don't have anything fancy to wear, all two of my dresses are at home"** she looked around holding her towel.

 **"Are you sure?"** Barry motioned toward the dresser while he entered to take a shower as well. Kara's face fell opening the one that he motioned to. The beautiful dress that he had bought had made quite an impact. She took it out from where it was and looked at it. The refinement was not lost on her even if she usually wore jeans and turtlenecks. She got dressed and put on the shoes that were perfect for her size actually surprising her that Barry knew that much to buy things for her that fitted her perfectly. The speedster got out of the shower only to be met by a sight he would probably not soon forget. Kara had put on the dress and the shoes and she was looking at herself in a large mirror that was on the other side of the room. Barry lost no time and flashed into his suit and changed only to get something and come up behind her.

 **"You look amazing"** He whispered into her ear giving her goosebumps **"Too bad you hide all this beauty under nerdy clothes all the time"** Barry chuckled making Kara smile at him in the mirror.

 **"You have some part in this. The dress you picked out is beautiful. I was never the one to wear something like this, not with anyone or for anyone, except for you"** She replied with a smirk.

 **"Then let's make this a complete set. Close your eyes"** He whispered while he took out the necklace he had bought for her. Kara did as she was told and soon she had it around her neck. When she opened her eyes she gasped at the beauty that was now completing her dress.

 **"Are you kidding me? Barry did you blow your entire next year's paycheck for this or what?"** She started to chuckle. **"You know I don't need fancy gifts from you. I would have been happy with what was until now"**

 **"Like I said, we won't get to do this often, so … why not do it right. Take the glasses with you. We will walk out so it would be better if you wear them at least until we get to where we're going"** She turned to him and kissed him on the lips hard, pressing against him as he was holding her. **"Shall we go to dinner, my beautiful one?"** He smiled making Kara blush even harder.

 **"Lead on, my charming knight"** she pulled that out of her hat not even realizing that it made Barry almost lose it to laughter. The walked this time back down and at the moment they reached the foyer, everyone who was in the lobby at the time turned their eyes to them. Some of the men gawked so hard at her that you could see their mouths stuck open. The women were eyeing Barry intently in his perfectly matched suit. The two attracted way more attention in 5 minutes of going through the lobby than they would attract in a year while going around National City, but they didn't care. This was their time. They walked don back on the same path to the beach only for Barry to take another path that was leading somewhere between the cliffs. They entered what could only be called a sort of cave in the rock wall which had a view to the ocean. Inside, Kara was struck by the setting yet again. A small gazebo in the middle with a table for two which was beautifully decorated with candles and a place to the side where a person was waiting for something.

The path to the gazebo was lit up with torches that were linked by strands of flowers. The cave in itself had candle holders with reservoirs underneath to stop the wax from dripping on the sand. There were a lot of them and each had a candle that was adding its light to the magic of the place. It was obvious that this was the normal usage of this cave, a private dinner that was far away from anyone's eyes. There wasn't any kind of artificial light anywhere, all the shadows were dancing in the warm rays that the candles were providing. Kara started walking slowly with her hand holding Barry's arm taking in what she could only classify as the most romantic, well thought out dinner that she had ever been invited to. The speedster took out a rose from somewhere, Kara didn't see where because she was too occupied taking in the beauty and handed it to her.

 **"A beautiful rose for a beautiful woman"** He quipped. The two sat at the table as Barry motioned to the person that was there that it was all right to being the food that he had ordered.

 **"Barry, I…"** she stopped. The words that she tried to say were stopping in her throat **"I don't know what to say. You, this, what you done, its beyond amazing for me"** She finally managed to speak

 **"Why would it be? You deserve this and more. Heck, if I could bring you the moon I would. Well, except I won't because if I do that it might destroy all life on earth, but you get the idea"** Barry smirked

 **"You are such a nerd. I will never ask for the moon. If I would ask anything of you it wouldn't be a present, or a rock, or anything of the sort. What I would ask is that you continue to be my partner and stay by my side"** She managed to utter. She left out something at the end, but Barry caught on that there was something missing. It was the same word he was thinking about. _Forever._

 **"Maybe you would have to if it wouldn't have already been implied from my actions until now"** he smirked. The food started pouring in, there were at least 12 types of everything from caviar to normal meat.

 **"You`re right. I don't even have to ask. That was your goal from the beginning when you said you were going to be a permanent resident here, wasn't it?"** she asked with a knowing smile.

 **"Of course it was. I had thought that you might not like who I am now. What I have done and who I have been. I had taken that into consideration"** Barry took out some money and tipped the waiter that disappeared a moment later **"There was a chance you wouldn't have. In that case I would have been there as a partner in your superhero life and as a friend"**

 **"That would be impossible. Sorry, Barry, but me not liking you even if you did what you did with your goofy grin and bad jokes that would be really not possible. Also, why are we alone?"** She asked looking around seeing that it was only her and him in the large cave.

 **"Well, you know how we eat and I know you don't like to stuff yourself with people around so … I got rid of the people"** Barry grinned prompting Kara to realize how considerate he was. He knew that she had a problem engorging herself in public. Her physiology needed a lot of food and even in a family setting she had shown to be quite embarrassed at how much she ate, even if there were three speedsters around her that were literally inhaling the food they had on their plates. The speedster had taken literally every precaution he could imagine so that she would feel perfect.

 **"Thank you for that. It's way easier to eat like a pig with only someone who eats even more than you do around"** She smiled brightly and Barry began to flash food on the table. The two didn't take long to finish all the food that was brought, but with the sheer quantity of it they felt that it was enough to eat. Barry took out two glasses and the bottle that they had on the beach and poured them something to drink.

 **"Too bad we are part of the "I can't get drunk brigade"** , **huh?"** Kara laughed

 **"Tonight, we can. This is not regular alcohol"** he grinned showing her the bottle. It was something that could be bought from the alien bar that was in National City. A drink distilled from a species of fruit that was native to Krypton. The fact that the planet disappeared made it very rare and very expensive. Kara looked at it with eyes like saucers.

 **"How did you even get a hold of this?"** She asked. **"This drink is so rare, I haven't been able to get my hands on it for the last few years"**

 **"Let's just say someone owed me a favor. To be fair, I did think that a little part of your planet would be welcomed on an occasion like this"** Barry laughed prompting Kara to nod and a tear came to her eyes.

 **"To us. May the good time outlast the bad and may the people we fight at least learn to take a rest so we can have some times for ourselves"** He raised his glass.

 **"To us. May other times as peaceful and happy as this find us in the future"** She raised her glass and they toasted on it. Barry took a sip and found that the alien alcohol did not get out of his system nearly as fast as normal alcohol. The taste was strange, almost like combining age old wine with strong whisky, but it was something that could grow on him. Kara however knew the smell. It was something that her mother and father would drink on the rare nights that they were together at home after completing a large project. The drink in itself was something that reminded her of home.

As strong as the alien alcohol was, Barry seemed to be less affected than Kara was. After a few drinks she started laughing and making jokes, she moved from her chair into Barry's lap and was smiling continuously. It was starting to get late already.

 **"How about a moonlight stroll on the beach?"** Barry asked the tipsy Kara who at this point didn't care what they did as long as she was with him. She nodded and took her heels off, the couple moving down along the beach that they spent their day on. The air was salty and the breeze made Kara's locks flow in the wind. The moon light that was coming down on them making Barry stop and look at the beautiful woman that was now slowly walking along the beach with her shoes in her hand.

 **"Hey, you aren't going to let me walk by myself now are you?"** she asked smiling. The speedster took off his shoes as well and joined her. She grabbed his arm while the two were looking at the beautiful waves that hit the shore.

 **"No chance. This is something that I wouldn't miss for the world"** the couple gently walked down the beach as the moon was shining down on them.

 **"Thank you for this, Barry. I feel happier than I have ever been being here with you, tonight"** Kara told him as they were walking

 **"This is so strange, I feel like the weight of everything I've ever done is no longer there when I'm here with you"** He answered stopping and taking her into his arms. Kara didn't resist, her hands went around his neck the two starting a kiss that would last for quite a long time. She felt herself being flooded by a feeling of love that she had never felt before. Something that was more than she could handle, but she realized why. What she was feeling was not only her but Barry's love as well. The passion and the need that the speedster had for the woman that he was now kissing. His feeling was similar, the joy love and passion that came from her was something that he had never experienced, something that he wished he could feel forever.

After quite a long time the two broke from their kiss and decided it was time to go back to the hotel. It was rather late, the waiters had already cleaned the cave out and there was no one outside at this late hour. They both went back inside and shed their clothes and got into the large bed together falling asleep intertwined from the fatigue and the slight drowsiness that the alien alcohol had caused.

The next morning the managed to wake up around the same time, Kara looking up at Barry seeing the green eyes that she came to love so much looking back down at her.

 **"Good morning, beautiful. How did you sleep?"** He asked.

 **"I had a great sleep last night. Except for the fact that I seem to have a bit of a headache now. Probably because of the alcohol"** She smiled still holding him tight.

 **"Nothing some water and some basking in the sun won't fix"** Barry smiled and got out from the large bed coming back with a glass of water that Kara drank almost instantly. Getting out of the bed herself she realized that she only had on a pair of panties. Last night apparently she slept like that after shedding her dress. She started to blush and sped right into a shirt that Barry had lying around. She turned around and saw Barry grinning at her. **"I did tell you that even if you do change at super speed I can see everything, right?"** He chuckled.

 **"Why do you think I do that when we change at the precinct?"** Kara gave Barry a sly smile. The speedster was totally frozen by that statement.

 **"Wait you`re telling me that ... you`re doing that on purpose?"** the speedster could not believe his ears.

 **"Of course I am. Knowing that you can see everything when I change would have meant that I should have gone to another room to do that, if I cared about you seeing me. Yet I never seemed to give a damn. You never asked yourself why?"** She had the same smug smile on her face as she did before.

 **"I actually did not. But I'm starting to ask myself now"** Barry started to rub the back of his head in disbelief of what he had heard her say.

 **"Because I know the only person that can keep track of me is the person I want to see me and the one I don't really mind doing so"** She quipped looking at his awed face which suddenly turned into a grin.

 **"But if that's so, then why did you speed into that shirt just now?"** He chuckled. Kara actually had no good answer to that question. Instead she started walking toward him lasciviously while taking off the shirt she had just put on and sitting in his lap.

 **"There, satisfied?"** She could not believe herself. What she just did was completely out of any of her comfort zones around anyone, not even her sister. She was surprised, but that subsided when she looked at his grinning face. He loved what he saw and that was more than enough to put her worries to rest.

 **"Very much so, girl of steel. Now, should I order breakfast or lunch? Would be nice to eat and go out for a stroll before we have to get back"** Barry pointed at the clock, it wasn't surprising that they had overslept.

 **"Maybe both? Since this is no longer a surprise I'm going to fly back so we can take all of this home. So I will probably need more food as well rather than being carried"** She smiled at him kissing his forehead.

 **"All right"** The speedster called room service which was not surprised to the heavy order that the couple had placed. It was nothing compared to the dinner that they seemingly cleaned out the day before. It took about an hour and a half for their food to be brought in, Barry had his pants on and a t shirt to receive the food while Kara, still in her panties was watching some TV in the bedroom. She looked for any news on National City but to her surprise nothing bad popped up from anywhere. **"Food's here"** Barry called from the other room. Everyone else had left and he was back in his underwear.

 **"Where are we anyway? I had so much fun yesterday being with you that I never even cared"** She asked while she was starting to eat.

 **"Maldives"** He told her prompting a gasp from the alien.

 **"Quite a ways away from National City aren't we?"** she realized that even at his top speed it did take a while for them to get here yesterday

 **"Yes, quite far indeed. Why?"** Barry was eating himself stopping to speak between bites

 **"Well then I think I won't be able to fly. Even at my top speed I would only slow us down"** She said realizing that even while flying, she had never gone faster than Mach 3.

 **"Oh, I got that covered. Don't worry. Just stay above me or near me at less than a 10 meters and you'll see what happens"** Barry smirked.

 **"Is it another one of your surprises? Interdimensional Man of Mystery?"** Kara quipped while he began to laugh

 **"It is indeed. At least you didn't call me old this time"** Barry remembered the first time he came here and what she called him back then.

 **"I didn't even care how old you were to be honest. But I do like to tease you now and then to remind you of your age, you dinosaur"** She started to laugh. The next thing she felt was a cupcake that hit her face with a lot of cream that started to run down her chest.

 **"That's what you get for calling me old. I have feelings too you know"** Barry laughed and Kara was again overwhelmed by the love and passion that she felt come from him.

 **"Now I have to take a shower. Thanks"** She pouted while she got the cake off her and ate it.

 **"I can always clean you up"** Barry had a pervy look on his face licking his lips that made Kara go totally red in the face. Before he could do good on his threat she sped to the shower and came back clean. **"Party pooper"** He laughed at her

 **"Barry Allen, didn't know you had that type of behavior in you"** Kara quipped finishing her food.

 **"What, does that surprise you? You do remember I actually almost had a child with someone, right?"** He replied nonchalantly making Kara blush even harder.

 **"No, doesn't surprise me, just unexpected I guess. Yes, I do remember you almost had a child"** She smiled. She did know that but his candor in expressing what he wanted left her a bit in shock. The two put back on their bathing suits and took one last stroll on the beach enjoying the afternoon sun. Kara still had no idea how they would get home before nightfall but she trusted the speedster. **"This date was something to be remembered for a long time. Thank you for bringing me here, Barry. Hope we have time to do this again sometime. Just maybe not in the Maldives"** she told him while they were walking slowly at the edge of the water hand letting the water hit their feet.

 **"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. As for me, I'm glad I got to spend just some time alone with you, away from the worries of the city"** Barry replied while they walked.

 **"I did. I love spending time alone with you"** She stopped in the sand in front of him **"I love you"** she told him while she pulled him in for a kiss

 **"I love you, Kara"** He responded while they shared the last kiss of their wondrous date. When the finally managed to separate they sped back to their room. Barry put on some normal clothes and went down and thanked the concierge for everything leaving him a sizeable tip for everyone and told him they will be leaving soon. Back inside, Kara remembered that she the necklace with her suit in it back and home and started to grumble. Barry heard her as he flashed back in the room.

 **"What's wrong, Kara?"**

 **"I forgot my suit at home, If I have to fly I don't really have anything I can do it in"** She said a bit annoyed

 **"You can always fly in that bathing suit"** Barry chuckled prompting quite a death glare from the girl of steel

 **"That's only for you, nerd"** she replied. She wanted to say something else but stopped when she saw something dangling from Barry's hand. It was the necklace that she apparently forgot at home **"How did you know?"** she asked putting it on

 **"I thought you might want to fly back and while I would enjoy Supergirl in a bathing suit, we both know that's never going to happen when flying. So I took your suit with me when we left"** Barry grinned

 **"Yep, never going to happen"** She chuckled. She had a mind to fly in the bathing suit just to see his reaction, but she came to her senses pretty fast. The two packed everything and Barry flashed them at the end of the beach where the island ended and where there were no prying eyes. He went back normally dressed to let the people know that they were leaving and came back. Kara changed into her Supergirl outfit putting the clothes in the suitcase and he changed in his Flash suit and put the clothes in the bag they came in. **"So how do we do this?"** Supergirl asked.

 **"You start flying at max velocity toward National. I need some wind up time so that I hit the speed necessary to go over water. I'll catch up to you and then we just go home"** He said. She nodded, got the suitcase and got up into the air breaking the sound barrier while doing so and started flying toward National. Barry took his bag and got a running start catching up to her quite easily, but instead of passing her he started to redirect the speed force in his system to envelop her as well. She was flying low enough for him to do that. After a few seconds Kara began to feel the immense pressure of the wind, but her suit and her withstood it just fine. It seemed that something was enveloping her. A force that was keeping her safe and offering her speed. The world started to blend in the usual colors that she knew when Barry was running around with her. She felt the speed, the rush that she had somehow got from the speedster that was treading water below her almost as easy as walking on land. She had never felt herself flying that fast, the world was going so fast around her that her senses barely had time to process where she was going. The velocity was unreal. It only took them less than 20 minutes to be back in their apartment in National City. Kara was stunned, with her maximum speed she could have never covered that much distance in this little time.

 **"Barry, what did just happen? I was flying fast enough to keep up with you. I was never able to do that"** She looked surprised as Flash sped out of his suit into a pair of shorts and put the clothes away.

 **"Another trick that I have learned over the years. I can share my speed with whoever I want. Providing they can keep up with me at least a bit. I wrapped you in the Speed Force and let you leech off my own speed until we were both moving at about the same pace. Which I think was somewhere around Mach 50"** the speedster looked at the alien blonde who was frozen.

 **"That was such a rush"** Kara commented speeding herself into a normal tank top and shorts. **"I had no idea that I could move that fast. Well I can't not unless you`re around, but still"** She came and sat down next to him on the couch cuddling into him while his hands caressed her back and hair.

 **"Now you know. If we need to get somewhere fast, we can get there in a hurry. I just won't use this trick while we're in town, the whole thing seems to bust a lot of windows"** Barry smiled kissing her forehead. Kara just stood up and kissed him out right, holding him to her pretty tight. Barry felt the need to vibrate since he didn't know how much strength she was putting in the hug. He could feel the feelings coming off her, love, peace, longing and passion. He was scared at first, but now he felt the same about the beautiful woman that was kissing him. **"What was that for?"** He asked after she finally broke the kiss

 **"Thank you for a wonderful date. That's what it was for. I love you"** She gave him a bright beautiful genuine smile. Something that made his heart flutter to no end.

 **"Thank you for accepting. I love you too"** He retorted. He knew that Kara would have never turned him down, but at the time it was the only thing that he could say that made sense. Anything else was gone from his mind, he could not think of anything else, except her. He could see in her beautiful blue eyes how happy she was and that is something that he always wanted to see in the woman that he loved.


	16. Undead

The two were called into the precinct rather early by Chief Singer. There had been a murder that took place over night and the people that were investigating were baffled. They two got sent post haste to the murder site. The normal flurry of cops, detectives and people were at the crime scene that was in an alley just off CatCo. There were two deaths, a man and a woman which were now covered with white sheets. Barry and Kara arrived at the crime scene prompting greetings and hellos from the people that had gotten used to seeing them around all the time by now. Kara got to work in examining the bodies and Barry went to question the witnesses. Surprisingly to him one of the witnesses was their friend, Cat Grant. She was really annoyed because the interviews were taking longer than normal and she had to get back to work. Barry decided to interject even when seeing that it was Chief Singer talking to her.

 **"Hello, Cat. What brings you to our side of the crime scene?"** Barry smiled to the person that seemed to be very frustrated.

 **"Hello, Barry. Just the usual, news. But I did see what happened here. At least I think I did and these people won't let me go to work until I give my statement"** She was still frustrated but the people around could see that her face lit up when she saw him.

 **"Well that's a problem. Would you mind letting her go?"** Barry asked Chief Singer politely without trying to sound authoritative over his own boss.

 **"Detective Allen, you know we can't until we have her statement. It's against regulations"** Another detective spoke

 **"That will be fine. Regulation does also say that as long as we know the witness we can take their statement at any time. Cat Grant is a good friend of mine and CSI Danvers, we can take her statement and put it on file for you"** Barry told them nonchalantly, Singer was pleasantly surprised to see that Barry was up to par when it came to regulations of the detective variety, even if he wasn't one for very long.

 **"Ah. Then that will be good enough. Thank you, Detective"** the man who was taking statements moved on from Cat and off to talk to another person.

 **"There you go. How about we meet for lunch so you can tell us what happened here. Is that ok with you?"** Barry smiled at Cat.

 **"Yes. Thank you for getting me out of that mess so quickly, Detective Allen"** she smirked at him while using his full title.

 **"Always happy to serve a member of the community, Ms. Grant. We will be seeing you at lunch. Have a good day"** He replied with the same smirk making Cat chuckle. That took him completely by surprise. Kara had seen her smile, but for him that was something totally new. She left in a hurry to get to work.

 **"I had no idea you knew Cat Grant so well"** Singer smiled at the new detective that proved to be more of an asset than he had ever hoped.

 **"She was close with Kara. Back when she lost her job, Cat was out of town on hiatus. She told her that if she wants her old job back it would be hers. One thing led to another and we got to know each other a bit better from that little thing"** Barry told the Chief who was surprised to hear that. He knew a different Cat Grant than Barry apparently

 **"So from that, you got to know her personality as well I assume"** The Chief offered a presumption

 **"Yes, she is one powerful, determined, driven woman. But most tabloids and papers don't do her justice. She is also kind and considerate and a real role model when she wants to"** Barry chuckled remembering how Cat acted like a mom to Kara in some cases.

 **"Well that's new to hear. I trust you'll be getting her statement shortly then?"** Singer asked.

 **"As you`ve heard. Over lunch. Kara and I both know how busy that woman is. So lunch was the best opportunity to let her do her job and for us to get our statement"** the speedster explained leaving Singer with a surprised face.

 **"All right. Carry on, Detective Allen"** the Chief told him

 **"Sir"** Barry nodded his head and left straight back to the scene where Kara had already started the evidence gathering process.

 **"I heard. Thank you for getting her out quickly. He always hated to be left waiting"** She whispered to him while she was taking pictures of the scene.

 **"Also we have a lunch date, but that won't be a problem. Did you find anything?"** Barry asked starting to look around himself.

 **"No weapon was used. There are flakes of skin all over the place, kind of like the attacked was … either shedding it, losing it or his skin was very dry almost decomposing"** Kara replied showing him a few samples she had picked up prior.

 **"So … either an alien, a shape shifter or a dead man. Wonderful, just a normal Monday in national City"** Barry quipped.

 **"Here is the real strange part. Look at the first body and tell me what you see, from a medical standpoint"** Kara asked him while she got even more samples. Barry took off the first sheet and examined it. He knew why Kara asked him to do it, even with all the books she managed to read he had more practical medical knowledge than her. But that never seemed a problem, the two worked like a well-oiled machine out on the field.

 **"It seems like the body is decaying on its own. Except a certain part here. Can you give me the black light?"** He asked. Kara handed it to him and he checked on the body, there was a handprint glowing on the first body, about the same place where tissue damage didn't quite occur yet. It was not visible to the naked eye because the skin had somehow the same color as the damage around it. He went to the second body and discovered the same thing.

 **"What's that?"** she asked coming over seeing what he had found.

 **"I would suspect its some kind of chemical, but it doesn't have the color of anything that I have seen. But that's now the interesting part. Take a look deeper, can you see if the skin in the glowing area has the same amount of damage as the one around?"** Barry asked knowing that Kara's vision could detect stuff like that. She lowered her glasses and took a good long look at the bodies.

 **"You`re right. The skin where those imprints are is almost intact. While around them it seems like it started the decaying process even if the two were still alive. This was no accident, this is either a metahuman or an alien. Someone killed these people that was unaffected by this power " Kara continued. The coroners were on the scene ready to pick up the bodies.**

 **"Guys, be careful and don't touch them. Put them in quarantine and send them to the morgue. Whatever happened here might be contagious and we don't want it spreading all over town"** Barry told them and they looked quite surprised but did as they were told.

 **"You think this might be some sort of virus or some kind of infection ?"** Kara asked looking worried at him

 **"I won't know more until I get to the lab. Did you touch the bodies?"** He asked and she responded with a simple no shaking her head. Barry then went out to the detectives. **"Did any of you touch the bodies when they arrived at the crime scene?"** The older detectives looked at him strangely, but their answers were negative. The younger ones were out interviewing witnesses so they didn't have time to do that.

 **"What did you find, Barry?"** the Chief was a bit distraught by the bluntness of his question and by the fact that he had a sense of urgency in his voice.

 **"I'm not sure, but it seems literally someone touched these people and they died, but not right away, they started to rot outward from the place that they were touched. Since I cannot be sure this isn't a viral contagion, I had to make sure that anyone who had contact with the bodies should be quarantined and kept under observation. I already sent the body to the morgue with details about keeping them locked up under quarantine"** Barry explained to him. Singer was surprised, yet again, to find out that Barry knew some CDC protocols as well beside the police ones, also that he was very careful about something that could turn out to be something very dangerous. In reality, that was the standard protocol at STAR labs every time they would have something to analyze that would be a possible biological contaminant. There was one grain of truth in that, at one point a bug almost escaped, that's when the rules changed to include CDC protocol for any sort of biological agent that might spread.

 **"You guys didn't ask the witnesses if they touched anything, did you?"** Singer asked the people that were conducting the interviews.

 **"Of course not. If their fingerprints would pop up they would be classified as a witness. So there is no point in doing that"** An older detective responded to the Chief.

 **"Allen, how much time would it take you to tell us if this is a contagion or just a strange power"** Singer asked.

 **"Give me a minute"** He returned to Kara. **"Does your vision work at the cellular level as well?"** He asked.

 **"Yes, it does. Why? Are you looking for something specific?"** she inquired.

 **"Can you see if the bodies have some sort of foreign agent in their system? Like an unknown bacteria or a virus? I'm going to finish up here. You race to the morgue and get a slice of our dead men and see if you can find anything " the answer came. She left while handing the CSI kit to him to finish the examination of the scene. Chief Singer saw her leave but did not try to stop her to ask why. He had given them total freedom in the past and they always came through. Today was no different. It didn't take long for Barry's phone to ring, by what he saw less than 15 minutes.**

 **"I couldn't find anything. Nothing that is alive anyway. The cells are dead and nothing that I could detect is even moving. The bodies are still decaying at an accelerated rate so if it was a virus or a bacteria it would still have to be active"** Kara told him.

 **"Bravo. Look at you, Ms. Danvers, you`re getting the hang of this quite beautifully"** Barry quipped making her blush like always when he gave her a compliment. **"Thank you, I'll be back there as soon as I finish this"** he closed the line and went back to the detectives. **"Quarantine is rescinded. There are no viral contaminants or anything of the sort in the bodies"** He told them which prompted a weird look from Singer

 **"How did you figure that out so fast?"** he asked.

 **"Viral patterns have specific progress tracks. Ms. Danvers made it back to the NCPD and took some samples to study. While the bodies are still decaying there aren't any types of contaminants present. Everyone should be ok"** Barry explained and saw a few people breathe a sigh of relief.

 **"She did? I just saw her leave like 15 minutes ago"** Singer was surprised.

 **"Yes Chief. She's in the lab studying the samples as we speak. Which is where I should be. The crime scene is clear, we got what we could the rest is just evidence that can't be used"** Barry replied.

 **"From what I've seen this your type of case"** The Chief told him with all the detectives present

 **"It has some strange parts yes, it could have been a metahuman, or an alien. But the possibility of it being just a human with a grudge against these two has not been eliminated yet. There is no evidence to support that claim. So until we find something…"** Barry didn't manage to finish

 **"Case is still yours since you already know the CDC quarantine protocols. In case it's something else"** Singer replied making Barry nod.

 **"Let us know if you need anything from us, Detective Allen"** the other people told him

 **"Thank you. I should go back, we have a mystery to solve. People that rot after being touched, this should present itself as a very interesting challenge"** the smile on his face surprised everyone. Most of them saw murders as heinous and petty. This guy saw them as puzzles to be solved. That made some of the people there smile. Barry left on foot, telling the others that he's better off thinking like that and after he was out of sight, he flashed back to the lab where Kara was already processing some of the evidence she had collected and brought along.

 **"I'm back"** he announced looking at Kara whose face suddenly lit up at seeing him enter

 **"Welcome back. Did you find anything else that might lead us to our killer?"** she greeted back.

 **"Nothing you haven't already seen I'm afraid. I'm still wondering what that substance that was on the bodies was. Which is why I will take a sample and find out in a minute"** Barry left his coat along with his guns and went down with a sample collection kit to the morgue. Kara suddenly started to feel fear and dread. She was pretty sure that it wasn't from her. Leaving everything she ran down to the Morgue only to find Barry and the ME stuck in a corner of the room with the two corpses trying to get at them. Singer was right on her tail, he had just arrived himself.

 **"What the hell is happening here?"** He asked her motioning toward the two corpses that were walking now toward them

 **"Kara, my guns are upstairs. Shoot them in the head or the neck. Those guns of yours should have enough punching power"** Barry yelled only for what could only be described as zombies to turn back toward him. That gave Kara the perfect shot. She took out her guns and blasted the corpses. The shots to their necks didn't do much, even though that would have meant a severed spine for most humans. The shots to the head however did the trick. The large caliber bullets blew large gaping holes in their heads. The two fell to the ground, as Barry and the ME thanked their lucky stars. Singer knew how good her aim was so he put back his weapon and smiled

 **"Barry, what the hell?! There were corpses weren't they?"** Kara almost shouted.

 **"Yes, Ms. Danvers. I confirmed that myself"** the ME managed to speak taking a deep breath of air.

 **"So how come they started walking?"** She asked calming down seeing that Barry was all right.

 **"How would I know. This is the first time that I saw this happen"** Barry replied calmly but his eyes told another story. She decided to wait before anything happened **"I suggest we cremate the bodies as fast as possible. Did anyone come to claim them?"**

 **"No. They have no next of kin so to say. They were just two kids minding their own business in the big city"** The ME replied.

 **"Good. That will make our job a bit easier. Cremate them as soon as possible before they start moving again"** Barry advised calmly. Singer gave his approval and the mortician took them away as fast as he could. The two returned back to the lab.

 **"It isn't the first time that you've seen this, is it?"** she asked bluntly

 **"I thought you might catch on. I couldn't speak with all of them there"** Barry sat down. **"Yes, I have seen this before. But this isn't the work of an alien or a metahuman. This is magic, sadly"** the word made Kara look at him rather crooked.

 **"I see. Which means it's something that we can't really fight until we find the person that's doing this"** Kara replied coldly

 **"You would think that you would be surprised at the word magic, first"** Barry smiled at her.

 **"No, I'm not. Damien Darhk, the guy we helped Oliver fight last year, he had magic as well. I found out that it can hurt me, pretty badly if I'm not careful"** Kara told him

 **"Ah. This happened in my timeline. There was a metahuman, Cisco I think named him Decay. He could basically touch anyone or anything and it could provoke a reaction that would turn them into dust. It was not reversible, once it started, you could not stop it. For a human it would be fatal. There was a chance, if it was on a limb, that limb could be cut off before the reaction spread"** Barry told her. **"That in itself wasn't a problem, but we couldn't catch him and he came back later being able to turn people into zombies. Constantine told me that is was because he absorbed the power of some stone or an idol through a ritual. Which is basically, magic. The problem however was that the ritual made his cells consume themselves. He became almost like a zombie himself and the only way he could return to normal is to turn other people. You could say he needed their life force almost like Parasite. But while Parasite has his powers because of science, this guy has them because of magic"**

 **"Oh great, another magical item. First an idol now a stone. Why can't people just stick to their phones and canvases"** Kara said with a bit of frustration. **"Did you ever beat him?"** she asked.

 **"No, he disappeared after a battle we had, in which me, you, Oliver and Constantine managed to bind his magic so he could not create anymore zombies. That was the last that we've heard of him"** Barry told her as much as he remembered.

 **"Is there any way to beat him without those two? I know we can get Oliver, but I don't know who this Constantine character is"** She asked him

 **"I don't know, the one in my time was almost indestructible. We need to find him first. If we do, then you blast him with your heat vision at full power. That will either do nothing, or turn him into dust. We shall see what we can do from then forward. Because if that doesn't even phase him, we might need to call reinforcements"** Barry told her out right. She nodded, Barry had been right about things on several occasions and she trusted him. A feeling of relief came over the speedster. He looked at Kara who sighed deeply and then it was gone. He knew this wasn't something that he was feeling, he was on edge, but decided to let it go for now. Feeling what she felt was something that he could get used to.

 **"Well, first of all we need to go talk to Cat. It's almost lunch time"** Kara pointed at the clock in the lab.

 **"You`re right"** Barry took out his phone, but Kara already had the phone to her ear.

 **"Speed dial"** She grinned while a voice could be heard from the other line. Kara confirmed that the lunch date that they had was at the same place as usual so the two grabbed they coats and guns and sped over there. They sat down at the table where the media mogul was waiting for them

 **"I'm really glad you got me out of that ruckus this morning"** she thanked them **"I was already late for a meeting with the director's board. If I would have been there for a longer while then I would have missed it completely"** She smiled at Barry who took a bow while Kara greeted her.

 **"No problem. What is it you actually saw? The detectives were pretty adamant in not letting you go"** Barry asked.

 **"I guess I was the first one there. It was early morning, I couldn't sleep so I tried to go to CatCo. My usual driver was away so, I took a cab like anyone normal. When I got out it was in front of that alley which as you`ve seen is pretty close. I saw a tall figure, clad in black. His hands were ... I don't know, they looked like they were eaten by a disease that was running away. I didn't even approach the corpses and I called the police instantly and they came quite fast. That's why I didn't have time to go back into CatCo"** Cat told them quite frankly. The description didn't really do them any good, but the way she pictured the man's hands, Barry was quite convinced that he might be this world's Decay.

 **"Are you sure that you saw his hands like you described them, Cat? This is really important"** the speedster asked for clarification

 **"That is all I saw with any clarity. Everything else was hidden. Why? Does that help?"** She asked.

 **"It does. Very much so"** Kara replied nodding at the speedster.

 **"Can you tell me more about it?"** she saw the two looking at each other and she remember they were actually cops so she continued **"Don't worry about the paper, I won't release anything you guys tell me personally, if I want statements I'll send a reporter for them, or just tell you when I want to take something to print"**

 **"It's a remnant of a case I used to work back in Coast City. There were other murders there similar to these. The perpetrator was never found, but the descriptions that several witnesses gave us were that he looked like a zombie. Someone who was eaten by a disease. That's why I asked, since you saw his hands, your testimony would put this case as a follow up to that one"** Barry told her in a low voice.

 **"So if I'm right about his hands this might turn from a simple murder to a case of a serial killer"** She said also in a low tone.

 **"Pretty much. That's why we had to be sure of what you saw, Cat"** Kara told her in a pretty stern tone.

 **"This isn't a human serial killer, is it?"** Cat asked in the same low manner.

 **"More than likely not. He is either an alien that has that appearance by his race, or a metahuman with a problem. Definitely not human" Barry returned**

 **"We're going to keep an eye on CatCo for a while via the police there haven't been any other murders for now and the evidence we gathered might not be enough to find this guy"** Kara added.

 **"I did want to ask you something. I know the police is secretive about its investigations, but considering I do own the largest media conglomerate in the city, wouldn't it help if you give me information about metahumans and aliens that you know are sought for a crime so I can put it out there for the people to know?"** Cat inquired pretty bluntly

 **"We have considered that. But the fact is, that could lead to more human casualties. Spotting for us would be ideal, maybe even help save a lot of lives, but the fact is you know humans don't act like that and we wouldn't want you or us to have their deaths over our head"** Kara replied quite sternly

 **"Even if we do, we don't want just any reporter to handle it. We would give you all the information you need, but it would require that you handle it personally. You know precisely what to put out and what not to put out so that the people don't panic and are actually helpful. No offense to you Cat, but do you even have time for that? You have a multimedia conglomerate to run"** Barry asked a very pertinent question putting Cat in a bind.

 **"I'll be damned. I wanted to go travel the world and find and explore new possibilities and break new barriers. When one was staring me right in the face. While I cannot answer that right now, give me a week. I need to see if I can clear my schedule and if I have time. To be honest, I would really like to help you two with the work you`re doing"** She said prompting some very surprised faces from the two that were taken totally by surprise by what she said.

 **"You never liked working with the police, so why now if I might ask?"** Kara interjected.

 **"Because I'm not working with the police. I'm working with you two. Besides, what you said Kara that time when I asked you to come back, made me think. I'm not really helping people, I'm just giving them news, entertainment, media. I would like to help too if I can, call it a new milestone in the life of Cat Grant"** She smiled brightly at the two that were again shocked by how she was acting.

 **"We do need approval from the Chief and for that we need to speak to him first. It might get rejected out of principle because we don't really give out information to the media, but it never hurts to try. How about you see what you can do on your end and we work our end. See if they meet anywhere. If they do then we go from there"** Barry spoke

 **"This could really help people to stay out of the way of alien or metahuman threats. Of course there will probably be people that want to play the heroes, but there is nothing we can do about them"** Kara said with a frown.

 **"You mean like you two? You aren't super powered, not meta humans, not super heroes and yet you go into danger to help other people. What are you if not playing the hero?"** Cat put a really interesting twist on her question

 **"In the end, Cat, we are cops. People that do this for a living. Even just as CSI's we catch criminals. Besides, we have guns"** Barry smiled at the media mogul.

 **"That's right. Barry took this job to help people, at the start I took this job to help him. But it became much more than that. I enjoy being able to put criminals behind bars. Even if it's the normal kind"** Kara gave her former boss a large smile.

 **"I'm not holding my breath. I know Singer doesn't like me. But I'm going to see if I have time nonetheless. This might be something new that helps the people of their city protect themselves"** Cat told the two. Lunch time was coming to an end and the two speedsters had to return to the precinct.

 **"See what you can do. We'll keep in touch about this whole endeavor. Take care of yourselves"** Cat told them as they exited the restaurant.

 **"You too, Cat. Keep in touch"** Kara told her as the started to walk toward the precinct at an accelerated pace. The two got back to the lab and started processing the other evidence, Barry in particular was interested about the chemical that was left behind on the bodies. It turned out to be nothing more than laundry detergent which provided no additional clues to anything. Common household whitener which was probably found in half the apartments in National City.

 **"No luck huh?"** Kara asked seeing him frown

 **"Not so much no. It's just detergent"** He said visibly annoyed. **"Which gives us … nothing"**

 **"Oh well. I guess we can't do anything until the next murder"** Kara looked at him and frowned.

 **"You know, sometimes it's annoying to have all these powers and still feel completely useless. Now we have to wait for more people to get hurt in order to catch this guy"** the speedster said with a real annoyance in his voice.

 **"What do you think. Should we go and talk to Singer about what Cat proposed?"** the blonde asked

 **"I sincerely have no idea. Singer doesn't like Cat. We both know that, but he does have a soft spot for you and me. If you can say something like that. He might be inclined to accept if we come up with the idea and just pitch in her as the liaison"** Barry replied.

 **"We should wait. If she can't find the time to do it then there's no point in taking this to the Chief. However, we can start creating profiles for the different metahumans that we have in our database. That should speed the process along"** Kara suggested. Barry saw the potential in that and got to work with the blonde helping him.

It took them a couple of hours to get everything ready for something that might not even come to pass, but the two could not sit idly by and not do anything. Especially since they lost their mark in that murder. Kara could feel the annoyance coming from Barry, it wasn't something that she was used to, feeling someone else's feelings. She already knew what that was, but she also knew that any interference could break it. So unless he asked there would be no talking of it, until it was fully completed.

 **"There. That should be good. I wanted to put the alien profiles that we have from the DEO computers in as well, but that is still classified information and I wouldn't want J`onn on our asses"** Barry finally smiled.

 **"That would probably not be a good idea. What we have should be more than enough for Cat" Kara smiled at the speedster "We'll see how this goes, hopefully to everyone's favor"** She quipped giving Barry a soft kiss **"Come on, let's head home, there's nothing more we can do here tonight"**

 **"You`re right. The case has gone cold and what we wanted to do here has already been done"** Barry stood up and took her hand. Both of them headed out of the precinct and back to their apartment. Kara changed into house clothes and Barry flashed out to get some pizza and donuts, fact that made her very happy.

 **"So, do you think this will work?"** She asked while eating

 **"You mean what Cat proposed?"** she nodded **"I really don't know, Kara. It could really help us and it could show the city that the NCPD actually has a handle on things. The people rely way too much on Supergirl and Flash. Maybe it would be time that they started to rely on themselves too and help the police as well"** Barry replied while almost finishing a pizza in 10 seconds flat.

 **"That would be something. I know the people can do it. I mean that time when I had problems with Livewire and Banshee two kids came up to help me. I'm pretty sure the citizens have it in the to keep their own city safe by reporting threats to the police"** The blonde answered

 **"We can only hope, my dear. We can only hope"** Barry replied while looking into her beautiful blue eyes. Holding her close to him and kissing her soft lips. She leaned into the kiss and the two smiled at each other when they separated holding hands and moving over to the couch where they decided to just watch something until sleep came for them.


	17. Toys

Nothing had been happening for the last week, the two speedsters were bored out of their minds at the NCPD. So bored in fact that Barry got the Chief's approval to go and investigate petty crimes, even those were few and far behind. Flash and Supergirl were patrolling the city like usual, people seeing them zip around in their usual blurs, but criminals were nowhere to be found. Just normal stuff, a failed bank robbery here, a failed kidnapping there. While the two were coming back to the NCPD after one of their usual evidence gathering runs at one of the cases, they noticed that someone was following them, yet again. Kara took the chance and turned down nonchalantly to X ray him. The man immediately ducked into an alley but the walls couldn't hide him from the girl of steel's superior vision.

 **"It's the same guy from back then. The same outfit with the same two weapons"** She told the speedster

 **"I thought he might come back. Problem is, none of us can actually catch him. We risk revealing ourselves if out of the blue one of us disappears and Supergirl or Flash goes and catches him. I think whichever organization he belongs might want to get to us through our alternate personas"** Barry reasoned.

 **"Either that or they really have a grudge on two simple CSI's that work for the police"** Kara smiled at her boyfriend.

 **"I doubt that. I know we caught a lot of people, but him having a grudge? We weren't even around when this guy was a spook. He would only be doing this if someone else put him up to it. Which would be the logical explanation if he's running black ops missions"** the speedster replied.

 **"Something must be up, if they decided to tell him to trail us again. So what do you want to do?"** She asked.

 **"Nothing. Let him follow us, but at the same time we keep an eye on him. Let's get to the precinct. I have a Nano tracker that I can inject him with, something I grabbed from the DEO for times just like these. We won't be in his line of sight so, the Flash can do that without a problem"** He told the blonde who nodded. They continued on their way keeping an eye on the strange man through reflections and the corner of their eyes. As they got to the NCPD, Barry flashed out and injected the man with the tracker. He did it so fast that it seemed that an insect had stung him, hopefully that should give them an idea of where the man would be for the next couple of days. Kara called the DEO.

 **"Hey, Alex. Remember the guy with the sniper rifle that tried to shoot me a couple of weeks ago? The one that came out as an ex dead spook?"** She talked softly

 **"Yea. What's with him? Did you find any other evidence on him?"** the voice asked sounding a little excited at potential good news.

 **"No, not evidence, we found him. He has been trailing us for a few hours while we came back from a crime scene"** Kara replied.

 **"So, not dead then?"** The voice concluded.

 **"No. Very much alive and this is not the first time that he had done that. The last time he did we tracked him to a warehouse where he met with a few people … get this. General Lane and someone who looked a lot like Lillian Luthor"** Kara told her sister.

 **"All around good people, wait isn't Lillian dead?"** Alex sounded surprised.

 **"Well, this spook is supposed to be dead too. Apparently criminals don't stay dead very long, if at all. Barry injected him with a tracker, have Winn keep an eye on his movements. We want to know if he makes another attempt at someone's life"** The blonde replied.

 **"I'm taking this one myself. If he is the one that tried to shoot you that time then he's mine"** She told her sternly through the phone.

 **"All right, just don't get yourself killed. That guy has two daggers under his coat, one normal, one kryptonite"** Kara made sure her sister knew the risks. **"Also being an ex-spook means that will probably be very apt at hand to hand combat and evasion"**

 **"I got you. I'll be careful, I'll call in case I have something"** She replied

 **"Thanks, Alex. Also call in case you get into trouble"** Kara quipped and closed the line. Barry had heard everything and was looking at Kara rather strange **"What?"**

 **"Nothing, just hoping she doesn't get hurt, this Sam Lane guy doesn't really inspire any sort of confidence, you know?"** Barry retorted.

 **"He doesn't. His anti-alien views weren't really well received at the DEO. That's why when he tried to take over most of us fought that. Hank offered and most of them already knew he was to be trusted so that's how he got control back from that psycho"** Kara explained in a bit more detail.

 **"Yeah, but that doesn't really explain what he's doing now with Lillian Luthor. Back in my time there was a real riot with CADMUS. They had done experiments on people pitted them against you and Superman. Some of them were really dangerous and they could hurt you quite badly, but we never found out what was their end goal"** the speedster remembered what had happened

 **"They made experiments specifically to kill me and Kal? That is actually not something I am at all surprised about"** She replied.

 **"Yeah, being an alien is quite hard on this earth. Of course there are people that try to control your powers and if they can't, they try to destroy you"** The speedster offered. **"I was thinking, maybe we should have some sort of panic button app for the phones of the people we care about in case they have issues they can call us"**

 **"That would be something, instead of trying to call us in a fire fight or when they`re in danger all they have to do is press a button. I think I've seen something similar on the other earth. It stands to reason that we can do that here as well and I'm pretty sure Winn will help us if we ask"** The blonde realized that Cisco had that idea a while back, but she didn't know if they implemented it or not. Kara called Winn and told them their idea and the man was delighted to help them with their endeavor. He knew that probably that could save his life as well as Alex's. However, he had some bad news for them.

 **"Kara, you know my dad, the mad genius? Yeah, he escaped from prison last night"** He told the blonde

 **"That wasn't at all unexpected, he is after all a genius, Winn. Do you have any sort of location on him or something that he might do?"** Barry asked as Kara had put the phone on speaker.

 **"No I don't. But you know his grudge against that man that put him out of business? That's no longer there because that man died while he was in prison and he got wind of it, now he's just insane. I wouldn't be surprised if he tried to attack children next just to make a point"** Winn was pretty annoyed at the thought, they could hear it through the phone.

 **"The only people he could have a grudge on now would be… me, I guess. I helped in putting him away the last time"** Kara replied

 **"Maybe, but he knows Supergirl won't show unless there is something to show for. So my best guess would be a large event, something with a lot of people that he can attack and create a situation in which you`re needed, or actually create a crisis in the town with the help of his toys"** Winn replied sternly.

 **"Can you search for large events that might be going on in the city in the next … I don't know, three days? It has to be public and has to draw attention. If we don't have any of them then we can focus on seeing what kind of problem can he cause large enough to require Supergirl's assistance"** Barry asked him. Winn stopped talking for a bit while he was searching and then spoke

 **"There is only one event in town in the next three days. The opening gala of the National City Museum. After your fight with Non and everything else that happened it was pretty badly damaged. They rebuilt it and they are holding a gala for its reopening. But it's invitation only and I doubt you could get in"** Winn replied

 **"Are you sure that would be the most likely target? I wouldn't want to go just for the sake of it. I hate parties"** Kara asked him

 **"Oh come on. We can go and have some fun, mingle with the city's richest, make connections. Or just sit in a corner and chat with Cat. I'm not really a fan of parties myself unless it's one that has only good friends, like the Christmas party at the Allens"** Barry started to laugh. Kara realized he was right, she hated parties but if she would be going with him and had Cat around that could be salvaged into not being a bore fest.

 **"Yes, unless he changes his Modus Operandi, the way he likes to draw attention to himself is still the same. It has to be big, it has to be public and it has to have a lot of explosions or at least some hostages"** Winn confirmed

 **"Ok, thank you Winn. I would suggest that you take Alex and join us at the gala. We don't know what kind of backup we might need"** Kara replied.

 **"How would we join you? We don't have an invitation"** The reply came

 **"We'll handle that. Just relay what we've just told you to Alex. We'll come back to the DEO when we have the invites, or send them to you from the precinct, depending on how much work we have to do"** The speedster told him and they closed the line. Barry was already dialing in Cat before Kara could close her phone.

 **"Well, well, well. Hello, Barry, to what do I owe the unexpected call?"** Cat replied from the other end of the line.

 **"Can you get us some invitations to the National City Museum opening tomorrow?"** Barry asked quite bluntly

 **"Sure, I'm going myself so I think I can squeeze a few more out of them. How many do you need and why ?"** the media mogul inquired

 **"We need 4, Cat. The reason is rather simple, Toyman has escaped prison. While the person he attacked the last time is no longer in National City, we think he might have a grudge with Supergirl. His MO is rather special, he likes to infiltrate large events to draw attention to himself, take hostages or just flat out destroy everything. That event is perfect for what he needs to get Supergirl's attention if something goes wrong"** Kara explained to her the urgency of the situation.

 **"But why not tell them to boost security at the event and have background checks on whoever works there?"** Cat asked surprised then realized **"It's a trap, isn't it?"**

 **"Yes. We want him to try his luck at that event because we will be there. If we lose this chance, he might attack who knows where and kill innocent people. Sadly we realize quite well that we are putting all those people as well as ourselves in danger. But even if we did nothing, he might still pick that event"** Barry replied

 **"So it's better that we're at least ready for what he can throw at us. That way we can limit the casualties or eliminate them completely"** Kara finished his thought. Cat was impressed, the two were almost in sync with what they wanted to do.

 **"All right, I see you two have thought this over quite thoroughly. I'll get those invitations to you as soon as I can get them. I suspect you know it's a black tie event, right?"** the media mogul told them

 **"Yes, it's fine we can do black tie. Thank you, Cat. We'll see you at the gala"** Kara replied

 **"Ok. See you then"** she answered and the line closed. The two looked at each other and smiled.

 **"Well, we got that down and we already have what to wear at the event as well"** Kara smiled and sighed of relief that she didn't have to go buy even more clothes that she barely wore and would just fill her dresser.

 **"We do? Oh. You mean what we wore back at our date. Yeah, that should do fine"** Barry replied and winked at Kara. She in turn started to blush remembering how the people in the lobby looked at them for the brief time they were there.

The next day before the Gala, a courier from CatCo brought Kara and Barry their invitations. Without much fuss, the two sped over to the DEO where Winn and Alex were waiting for them.

 **"Here are your invitations. Did you find anything more on your father?"** Barry asked giving them the sealed envelopes.

 **"No, I couldn't find anything related and the facial recognition program only picked him up once, at the train station about 8 hours ago. None of us were here since it was the middle of the night. But we can say for sure that he is in the city now"** Winn showed them the footage.

 **"Now that we know he's here, depending on where he attacks we can capture him"** Barry commented

 **"If he doesn't show up at the gala then we have a big problem. The man is an insane genius, which means actually trying to understand what he does is pretty much pointless "** Alex frowned looking at Winn who didn't say anything but his face was enough.

 **"Thank god we got a sane genius then to help us"** the speedster looked at Winn who understood the message and smiled. Kara's phone rang. It was Cat

 **"You might be right about Toyman. My sources indicate that the gala organizers already have received threats that they should cancel the event. I have no way of knowing from who"** she spoke.

 **"Good. If he strikes there then that means we have a chance to catch him"** Barry replied. Winn and Alex were shocked that Cat Grant of all people would call Barry to give him information about people they were after.

 **"Thank you for the heads up, Cat. We'll see you there"** Kara replied.

 **"No problem. Also be advised, the invitations that I sent are still on me so … try to act civil and not break up anything?"** Cat chuckled

 **"We shall be on our best behavior, madam"** Barry quipped into the phone as all the people that could hear him started to laugh. Cat closed the line and Winn went back to work in writing the panic button app.

 **"How did you even manage that? Every time we talked about Cat Grant it seemed that she was not a person that would do this sort of thing. All of a sudden now she is helping you?"** Alex was pleasantly surprised

 **"We didn't manage anything. She offered to help. It seems that hiatus she took has made her change her mind, at least regarding a couple of things. She's the same old Cat, her personality didn't really change, but the way she acts, at least toward the two of us, has"** Kara explained to her sister.

 **"So what do you think? Bullet proof vest?"** Alex smiled

 **"It's a black tie event so, I don't think you can find a dress under which you can hide that. Sadly that means you and Winn will be in the same danger as the people there. Do take care of yourselves, all right?"** Kara told them. Barry felt the worry that she had for her friends and continued

 **"Oh don't worry about us. I'll make sure Winn is unharmed"** Alex chuckled.

 **"Good. We'll hold you to that. He might even try to reconnect with you, Winn. So the first recipient of that panic button app you`re writing, will be you. In case something happens and your father tries to initiate contact, call us. It would be beneficial if we catch him before anything major happens"** Kara told the techie who agreed. He didn't like his dad, having the same name had brought him quite enough problems in his life, now he didn't want that to happen to his friends as well. Barry and Kara left back to the precinct to have a talk with Chief Singer about the potential threat to the gala. He was the one that was in charge of protecting all the people there. When they got back, first thing they did was go to his office. The two had free access there, the receptionist didn't even stop them anymore, they knew that the two would only disturb the Chief with something that was of utmost importance.

 **"Hello you two. What's got you so riled up?"** He invited them to sit in the chairs in front of his desk.

 **"Did you hear about Toyman breaking out of prison?"** Barry asked directly not really taking the aforementioned seat. That let Singer know that the problem he wanted to discuss was pretty serious.

 **"I did. Do you think he is coming here?"** He inquired

 **"Our contacts at the DEO saw him get off the train in National City, but could not be there fast enough to catch him. You can say most surely that he is here by now. Which brings me to the other issue. He might try to do something at the gala tonight. The reopening of the National City Museum"** Kara spoke albeit softly but with a tone of urgency.

 **"The NCPD is providing security for that. Are you two sure?"** the Chief looked at the two trying to make ends meet of what they were telling him.

 **"We're sure. The person he had a grudge on is dead. So the next on the list would be the one that helped capture him the first time"** Barry explained

 **"Supergirl. Derailing such a big event would more than likely grab her attention"** Singer realized

 **"Yes, sir. We have already acquired passes for the Gala. Courtesy of our good friend Cat Grant. To make sure he strikes there we included in the guest list his son as well. Last time the mad genius tried to contact him, maybe he will do the same this time"** the speedster explained to the Chief their plan.

 **"So wait, are you two planning to use the whole gala as a trap?"** Singer looked at the incredulously. **"There could be a lot of people that get hurt, you know that, right?"**

 **"We do sir. But if we don't finish this now, the next thing he might decide to attack might be an orphanage, or an old people's home. Someone that cannot defend themselves and the losses would be even bigger. Here at least, with Flash and Supergirl's help we can try to minimize the loss of life"** Kara replied as if she was reading Barry's mind.

 **"I see. Did you come up with this yourselves?"** Singer asked bluntly

 **"I guess we did. Since we know the Toyman's son we had to come up with this plan as fast as we could. It might not be 100% fool proof but it's better than nothing"** Barry explained.

 **"Ah. If you know him that explains where you could come up with the MO and what he might do so quickly. All right then, this is your baby. What do you need me to do?"** the Chief looked at them. The two of them were stunned that Singer would be so fast in giving them a case that initially was so bad he had to bring the feds in on it, but then realized it was the obvious choice. They had the information required to make this a success.

 **"Nothing, if we increase the number of cops at the gala he might get scared. However it would be beneficial if there would be more of them keeping an eye on the premises, dressed in civilian clothing. The more information we have the better we can act"** Kara said with a steel determination on her face.

 **"Agreed. I'll put more people on keeping an eye on the building. I'm guessing that if there is other sort of trouble you can call your friends to take care of the situation inside?"** He inquired

 **"Yes. We have already talked to them ever since we found out he escaped. They're standing by if anything happens"** Barry responded to the Chief.

 **"All right then. Let's see if you're right. I'll get everything set up. You two get yourself presentable. We wouldn't want the NCPD to be seen in a bad light at a rich snob's party"** He chuckled. The two smiled and left the building. It wasn't long until the start of the event.

An hour later Barry and Kara dressed in their best clothes arrived at the event thought a back door. Barry had in one of his coat pockets her necklace and his ring in case they needed the suits. They didn't need the attention that the others were getting in the front of the building. Cat however since she thrived on publicity was walking the red carpet to enter the venue. Alex and Winn had arrived earlier to make sure everything is in place. Winn even checked around to make sure that his father wasn't disguised as one of the help. To their frustration, it seemed like nothing was happening.

The two walked into the room full of guests after making sure there were no hidden bombs and anything around. Toyman had used the same trick back when he was first captured and they wanted to make sure they weren't caught off guard. As they entered, the same thing happened as in the lobby of the hotel in the Maldives. All the eyes in the venue were trained on them. Alex was stunned, she had never seen Kara wear anything that would resemble what she was wearing now. It made her look confident and mature. Barry however looked distinguished, like someone who was already part of the rich crowd that was gathered here. Winn was frozen. The beauty that the blonde emanated from how she dressed and the way she walked was something that he personally had never seen. She did indeed draw a lot of stares from around the room, even if she chose to keep her hair up in a bun and still dawned the dorky glasses, the necklace that she was wearing was completing the set with her blue eyes. He managed to stop gawking and his focus returned back to the task at hand. There were other known people there, the mayor and the chief of police among them, they had been invited like all the others.

Cat was in a corner discussing something with Singer, who was himself on the scene. It was strange seeing them just chat knowing that the latter had quite an animosity for the woman. The two walked hand in hand to greet them. Cat saw them from afar and so did Singer. The Chief noticed that the couple before him was exuding confidence and power. Cat was similarly baffled at how beautiful Kara looked in what she had picked. She wondered in the back of her head why did she come with jeans and turtlenecks at work and tried to look so nerdy, but let it go in the back of her mind.

 **"Well look at you two. You know I was kidding when I said not to embarrass the NCPD. But I didn't think you two could clean up like this, I think most of the room was checking you two out when you came in"** Singer smiled at the couple.

 **"Kara, Barry. I see you decided to show the world that even two cops can break the necks of every rich person in town, which you most certainly did when you came in, Just like Chief Singer just mentioned"** she chuckled.

 **"We try. It's not like we have never gone to a party, we just enjoy each other's company more than anyone else's"** Barry explained.

 **"Are we keeping an eye on the building?"** Kara asked out of the blue

 **"As we discussed. There are cops dressed in civvies down at street level keeping an eye on things"** the Chief replied. Kara was fiddling with the necklace. In the process somehow she cut herself on a finger and a small droplet of blood appeared. She made wide eyes at the fact that it happened. Barry saw that, his mind began to race. He excused them both and they got out from the main hall to a place where they could be alone.

 **"How did that happen?"** She asked looking at the cut that was now closing itself

 **"I think I know"** Barry pulled out her necklace. She could see that it wasn't empty as before in the middle. Now it had a red streak and a blue one that was going around the edges. **"Crap. I thought that might be case"**

 **"What is it?"** Kara inquired

 **"I made the kryptonite detector in your suit send information to the necklace. In case the belt buckle sensor would detect anything, the necklace would light up. Same as the bracer. Red outside for danger and inside the Kryptonite variant that it detected. That is why you could cut yourself. Somewhere inside there must be a stash of Blue Kryptonite"** Barry looked at her and it was clear that she was scared.

 **"You mean the stuff that takes my powers away, but doesn't give me the other side effects the green one does"** Kara recalled what he had told her

 **"Yes. I'm going to go find it. As long as you stay near it you will be human. I would rather you not die"** Barry changed instantly into his suit leaving the clothes with Kara who began to move away from the building slowly. After about 20 meters, the cut on her finger healed instantly. Barry was zipping through the building he found quite a few pieces of the blue substance hidden around the main room, someone had put them there before the event started. He phased them into nothing and returned back to Kara. **"There were 4 of them and quite large, I think they were supposed to encompass the whole room with radiation. I don't know where they showed up but the target is definitely not Winn. It's you"** Barry told her as he sped back into his evening attire leaving the suit back in the ring.

 **"Where would Toyman find that sort of thing? You told me this type appeared quite early in your timeline"** She looked rather distressed.

 **"Yes it did, the good thing is that nobody managed to make duplicates after we caught Lord. This means if these types are here now, then we need to find that man"** Barry said with a steel resolve in his eyes

 **"Do you plan to kill him?"** Kara inquired the speedster who was visibly distraught by the appearance of the blue rock

 **"I don't know. I'm still thinking, I am considering it though, maybe even a few punches to the crotch area before that"** Before he could finish his sentence, they heard and explosion. Coming back out of the place they were using for privacy, they saw a couple of toy planes that were flying around the guests at the party shooting live ammo. Winn and Alex had taken cover in an adjacent corridor so the villain could not see them.

 **"Good evening, everyone. I am Toyman and I'm looking for Supergirl. I wonder how many of you I have to kill before she arrives"** The villain started to laugh as more planes started to circle the guests and some of them started shooting in their direction. Barry lost no time. He flashed in his suit leaving the clothes out of sight and caught all the bullets that he could sending them back to the planes that shot them

 **"I guess you didn't know Supergirl has a new partner, did you?"** the Flash taunted Toyman whose planes started to crash on the ground.

 **"Oh but I did, here's something I cooked up especially for you"** He threw a pack of what looked like Play Doh as the speedster who not only caught it but phased it into nothing. He thought that it would be a good idea not to touch anything a mad man throws at you. Supergirl came up behind him and started to blast the other planes down from the sky. She noticed through the floor that there was something in the basement, she recognized it as what would have seen like a bomb. Two flashes of light through the floor and the bomb was rendered inactive.

 **"You were looking for me I hear. Well here I am"** Supergirl told the villain who had disseminated toy soldiers all around the room. He was however not so pleasantly surprised when she landed and picked on up crushing it with her bare hands.

 **"You were supposed to be powerless, they assured me that it would work on you"** He shouted with visible anger

 **"What a surprise, the one that fools got fooled. Not really feeling sorry for you right now, but you will …"** The Flash grinned at the villain throwing lightning bolts at the remaining planes.

 **"It doesn't matter. This should finish you off nonetheless"** He took out a gun that had a visible green tint firing something that looked like a green laser beam at Supergirl. Barry could see it. In a fraction of a second he was near Kara and phased her out into intangibility the ray going through her like she was never there. Toyman was angry, he pushed a button on something that looked like a detonator. **"So what will it be, Flash, your girlfriend or all the people in this building"** He snickered and continued to fire at both of them. Barry noticed that all the soldiers that were still next to the people were starting to blink.

 **"How about both"** He pushed Supergirl out of the way ending his vibrations the green beam hitting him in the shoulder, that what it looked like but in reality he was not fully solidified. With a swift motion he threw a bolt of lightning straight at the villain. That impact almost threw him straight into the large door that was closed behind him when he came in, but Alex was there and she dragged him back, leaving him on the floor, unconscious. Kara was out of danger and he started to gather all the soldiers. Some he phased out of existence, some he just took with him.

 **"Flash, bring them to me. I can take the explosion"** She told her partner. He nodded and he started to leave the toys with her. She did the same as him trying to destroy the toys as fast as she could, some exploded in her hands, some she just crushed. It took less than 2 minutes to clear the room of the menacing mini bombs. Everybody in the room started to cheer as the two heroes disappeared, Kara and Barry reappeared both with weapons out, the speedster had decided to take one of his guns and one of hers under his suit just for this kind of emergency, Kara had seen through the wall that Toyman regained his senses and took yet another remote into his hand. He didn't have time to press it, Kara shot the small gadget making it fly in a million different pieces and Barry put a bullet into his shoulder for good measure making him fall to the floor and wincing in pain with the item in pieces next to him. The crowd was stunned, everything happened so suddenly that the people had no time to react. They were also stunned that two of the people that were participating at this event were actually cops.

 **"Sorry we're late, Chief. There was a bomb in the basement so we had to make sure it didn't explode and take this whole building with it"** Kara smiled at Singer and Cat while putting the cuffs on Toyman

 **"That's taken care of as well. You can send a bomb squad to retrieve it and bring that to our lab. We might be able to find out who manufactured it"** Barry smiled helping Kara raise the villain that was now all wrapped up to his feet. Singer had wondered where the two had been. This was their case so them disappearing like that wasn't something that any cop would do. He realized that they were never missing after what they told him. They were keeping the place intact while the super heroes were making sure nobody died.

 **"Good work you two. Nice catch"** The Chief told them, visibly impressed. There were no need for feds this time and nobody actually got hurt. Their trap worked perfectly.

 **"You can say that again. I underestimated what you two can do together"** Cat replied from next to him. She thought the guns were for show, but after what she saw just now, there was no doubt about those two. They were very good at their jobs and not afraid to step in some danger to save other people. That made her really proud of them.

 **"We're sorry for all the commotion, ladies and gentlemen. The matter has been handled. Do try to at least enjoy the remainder of the evening"** Barry smiled toward the crowd and Kara did a curtsy while they were removing the villain. Singer managed to call reinforcements before the shit hit the fan, but now all they did is watch in awe as two people, dressed in very fine attire were putting in a van one of the biggest lunatics that National City had ever seen. Everyone started to clap, flashes started going off ever since they got out with the perpetrator in hand.

 **"Damn. So much for remaining incognito, huh?"** Barry threw Kara a faint smile.

 **"Yeah. I guess we'll see how well my disguise holds now. Although I can always ask J`onn to stand in so I can be in two places at once. We managed to catch him and that's all that matters"** Kara answered. She found herself being really happy and with a sense of fulfillment only her Supergirl adventures gave her, something that Barry was feeling as well. He was really proud that they managed to catch Toyman.

 **"We make a bad ass team, don't we? On either one of our …"** Barry wanted to finish but Kara didn't let him.

 **"Yes we do. I love you"** She smiled at the speedster that came close enough to her so that she could take his hand.

 **"I love you too"** the reply came swiftly.

 **"By the way, thank you for what you did back there. I didn't know what that green beam was"** Kara told him

 **"Me neither. It did hit me but I don't feel anything, it's like it wasn't even supposed to affect me, but only you. I find it weird that a genius would not come prepared for both of us"** Barry expressed his confusion.

 **"Are you sure you'll all right?"** Kara asked

 **"You can give me a once over once we get home"** Barry grinned

 **"I might just do that"** She replied **"But did it actually hit you, because that's what it looked like?"**

 **"No, I turned you back solid, but I was still phased. It passed right through me even if it looked like it hit my shoulder"** the speedster replied. Singer walked up to them and both of them shook his hand

 **"You two take a few days off. On me. We can manage without you for a while. You deserve it"** He smiled at the two leaving them a bit confused.

 **"All right. Let's go home"** Kara took his hand and the couple left through the crowd of people that were still cheering them on.


	18. Groundwork

AN : Thank you to all that stopped to write a review, hope you enjoy the next installments of the story :)

* * *

The two went back to work soon after the Toyman debacle. They were well known in the precinct and their story had been headline for a couple of days. They had set up a formal interview with Cat Grant. Which was anything but formal because it would probably be just the same old thing the three would be doing at any lunch. Winn had finished the panic button app and did and extremely good job at it. If pressed the thing would send an alert to the main computers in the NCPD that were tied into the DEO, Winn's console and their personal bracers, which Barry learned how to modify as well as a GPS ping of the location the person was currently at. As soon as they got into work that morning the desk sergeant told them to go to the Chief.

 **"Yes sir? We were told you wanted to see us"** Kara sat down, Barry did not. He put his hands around her neck. The precinct already knew the two were together so that didn't make any issue as long as they were keeping it civil at work.

 **"I did. The chief of police was very impressed with your work. He was really surprised when he found out that you were CSI's, well at least Kara is. Since you, Barry has had a detective badge for a while. So, at his … request, you both received a pay raise and Kara, you have been promoted to full detective"** Chief asked for her old badge and gave her a new one. She looked at the shield confused, not understanding why she would need a replacement

 **"Chief, why would Kara need her badge replaced? She is still with the "supernatural" department is she not?"** Barry looked at the Chief. That is what their department had been nicknamed the past few weeks, and the speedster joked that they needed to get a shotgun with rock salt as their emblem and put it on the door of the lab.

 **"Of course, you two still have your own department, but since I can't really promote you any further, I can at least promote her"** Singer smiled at the two. **"I have said it before. Good work on the Toyman case. I had a bit of a doubt when you came in here and told me that you had a plan to trap him, but you seemed to pull through just fine. Also managed not to let the newly renovated museum explode in a million pieces with everyone inside, so that was a bonus"**

 **"Thank you, Chief"** Barry spoke this time, his girlfriend being busy in caressing his hands. **"We're glad it came out the way it did and nobody got hurt"**

 **"Still nice job with that off the rails trap plan. You surprised me with it, because it was so quickly crafted, I thought the odds to fail were quite large. I was wrong"** he replied with a truthful tone in his voice.

 **"We still have a case that's a bit annoying to be fair"** Kara said but the Chief knew exactly what she meant.

 **"Chief, we need to talk to Cat, but we might have a proposal for you"** Barry told him.

 **"Oh? What would that be?"** He looked at the two

 **"As you know, right now people are counting too much on Flash and Supergirl. They do not have enough information to tell us when and if they see some metahuman or alien that we have an APB out for. Since those are just for the police. Maybe we can change that"** Kara started

 **"We were thinking that our department could work with CatCo. More specifically with Cat Grant herself, to put out information on the people that we consider dangerous or are indeed responsible of crimes. That way, if they see any of them, they could call it into a line we can create back here that would give us a ping on his location"** Barry continued. Singer was not really convinced about what the two were trying to do but he continued to listen.

 **"We know her pretty well. She has a knack to keep classified information for herself and release only what she knows will not create panic in the streets. But as it stands now, she has no access to our databases and no idea who we are looking for. What we would propose is that we give her that access. With something that me and Barry can come up with and the databases that the NCPD has, once a week, or if Cat is willing maybe daily, the paper can have a supplement of people to "watch out for". That way, normal people don't engage the criminals and maybe, if we're lucky they even call them in, allowing us to find them faster"** Kara continued Barry's train of thought.

 **"Call it a support system for the normal citizen. Right now they depend too much on superheroes and too little on the police. Maybe we can turn that around and have them help us as well, if they are willing"** the speedster continued.

 **"You two have thought this through, haven't you?"** Singer told them rather surprised. He had no idea that they would have such a comprehensive understanding of the relationship that the people have with the police and how that might help.

 **"We can take it a step further. We can program a phone app that would let us know instantly where the sender is and who he spotted. That way we eliminate the need for someone to actually go through all the calls that would probably come in on a daily basis. But that will take a while"** Barry replied nonchalantly

 **"I see. This actually sounds like a pretty nifty idea if I have to say so myself. The one thing in this equation I don't like is …"** the Chief got cut off by Kara.

 **"Cat Grant. We know. We have seen you two interact, but she does own the largest media trusts in the country and we have talked to her already, she is willing to put her own time on the line for this as well. Nobody else, because to be fair, she doesn't really trust her own reporters with classified information, even if she can suppress their articles"**

 **"What determined her to even agree to something like this? She is a very busy woman, this will more than likely take a few hours off her day"** Singer asked surprised

 **"It more than likely will, but she is willing to do it, even put more of her own time into it. To quote her _"I would like to help this city as much as you two do"._ That's what she told us at least when we presented her with this idea"** Barry replied swiftly.

 **"I see. Well, let me know how much time she has and how much she wants to work with us and I'll take it into consideration. Once again, congratulations on the promotion, Detective Danvers"** Singer told them

 **"Thank you. We're going to lunch to meet with Cat. We'll have for you those answers that you wanted after we talk to her"** Barry told the Chief and he nodded. Both of them exited the precinct and walked to the same place where they would meet Cat. As they walked into the restaurant, most of the people that were there stood up and started Clapping. The two were seriously overwhelmed by that. It was something that they didn't expect at all. Barry asked as they reached Cat's table.

 **"This isn't your doing is it?"** He chuckled while both sat down

 **"Mine? Not at all. I don't even know who many of these people are even if they work for me. Apparently, however, they do know you. I'm not surprised by that, your story has been running in the paper for a few days now. The Couple that took down Toyman. That was a catchy title wouldn't you think?"** Cat grinned.

 **"You know we didn't, that was Flash and Supergirl"** Kara reminded her

 **"Maybe, but you did save the whole building from being blown up and at the end you did stop him from doing whatever else he wanted to do with that remote. Nice shooting there, Kara, I didn't know you had the power to yield those cannons you carry around, but actually shooting with the and with that accuracy? I was amazed"** she grinned again.

 **"Come on Cat, did you really think that I was that powerless? Besides these guns are custom made for me and have stabilizers that were built by Barry. They take out most of the punch. He just thought I needed big guns to look menacing since ... well I'm smaller"** Kara quipped

 **"Do keep that to yourself, please. The stabilizers are coded to Kara's DNA so they won't work for anyone else. You know the illusion of power is nothing if the audience catches the trick"** Barry whispered.

 **"Wait, are you telling me you built something so complicated just so that she could be more menacing?"** Cat could not believe her ears.

 **"Yep. Why wouldn't I? She IS my girlfriend after all"** Barry gave Cat a grin. **"You wouldn't believe how fast some people just start talking if there's someone pointing those cannons at them"**

 **"Why didn't you build a pair for yourself then?"** Cat was confused.

 **"Simple"** his voice and demeanor changed, his face changed, he looked at Cat with his eyes that had turned dark green already and he spoke with the same voice he had used on Jimmy, **"Because I can be menacing without the guns"** The media mogul froze as Barry was talking. The ice cold voice got to her instantly. She calmed down when he returned to his normal voice and face **"I can do that if needed, but shy, nerdy Kara Danvers just puts out smiles and positivity. In her case two guns with a smile might be even more effective than what you just witnessed. It could be quite a shock to have those pointed at you and the person that wields them to just have a smile on her face"**

 **"Ok. I had no idea that you can pull that off so well. I was actually scared there for a minute"** Cat sighed and looked at Kara that was smiling brightly **"Did you know he could do that?"** she asked.

 **"Oh, yes. I did. Let's just say James got a really big dose of Menacing Barry, before I left CatCo. To be fair, considering how upset he was back then, the menacing part might as well been true since there were a few times where I thought Barry would throw James out a window or something"** She replied.

 **"Well now on with the other thing. What can you tell me for your interview"** The media mogul started her tape recorder as she would usually do.

 **"What do you want to know?"** Barry asked quite bluntly.

 **"As much as you can tell me"** the reply came. The couple told her everything that had gone on, including the fact that they had advanced warning and their way of thinking, the fact that they added extra police force and everything that happened that night. They left out the superhero part, they remembered that they were giving her interviews as Barry and Kara. They made up the part in which they tried to defuse the bomb and the fact that they were stuck in the basement making sure the building didn't fall down and the last part where they captured the villain. Cat seemed ok with all of that and after they finished she closed the tape recorder.

 **"Did you manage to find out if you have time for that ... thing we talked about?"** Kara asked nonchalantly her former boss.

 **"Yes, I can spare an hour or two every day to make sure the information reaches the people that it has to reach, why?"** she inquired

 **"We talked with Chief Singer this morning. He wanted to know how much time you have to work on this with us. But he didn't say no, matter of fact he wasn't opposed to the idea at all he even called it "nifty"** , **which was rather odd coming from him"** Barry told the media mogul.

 **"We did mention however that you will be working only with us and not with anyone else and you will be granted access to our metahuman database so that you can see which people are at large and who we want to catch. That more than likely raised a red flag. But he knows he doesn't have access to our feeds from the DEO and he seems ok with that, so I don't see why he wouldn't be ok with this sort of arrangement"** Kara continued

 **"But how would I know which are active and which aren't?"** Cat asked **"You know me Kara, I'm not a computer person"**

 **"I know, Cat. The feeds that are going to come from will be in the form of mails. Since you said you can take care of that once a day, we will send you a mail from the server in the lab once a day with people that are currently active. Somedays it might be 10 – 20, some days it might be none. How you handle that, it's at your discretion"** Kara replied.

 **"Ah, mails I can do"** she replied. **"I suppose I can't give this information to anyone else except myself?"**

 **"Yes, you can't. But that's not really a problem. If you are sick or can't come to work or you have family problems, I can hack the mainframe at CatCo and put the fugitives there myself to be distributed by the morning paper. All you have to do is let us know if something comes up. Either me or Kara. Don't you worry"** Barry smiled at Cat who was a bit taken aback by that statement realizing that he had already thought about the scenario she did.

 **"You can actually do that? Isn't that, you know, illegal?"** the media mogul asked the speedster.

 **"It is, but in your case, regard it as a friend helping a friend and if you don't turn us in who do you think will"** Barry gave her a winning smile.

 **"Fair point. Then I guess we're on. We will need to schedule a press conference to announce all of this. Nobody would believe that I managed to get restricted access to the information at the NCPD, without an actual representative of the police"** She answered.

 **"We have to talk to the Chief so he can green light all of this and you will probably have to sign a non-disclosure agreement, but I think we can get him to come to the press conference"** Kara spoke.

 **"All right then. I got the interview and the little matter we talked about is settled. Good luck with Singer. I need to get back to work"** Cat told them. They got up as well and they walked to the entrance.

 **"Thank you. We don't know if we're going to need it or not but we hope we don't"** Barry replied

 **"Take care, Cat"** Kara smiled as the trio disbanded and each left to their own workplace. As Barry and Kara reached their lab, they weren't surprised to find Chief Singer waiting for them. He seemed to be eager to find out what they talked about at lunch.

 **"Ms. Grant has the time to do what we discussed with you. She wants to schedule a press conference to announce it if and when you give the go ahead"** Kara told him smiling.

 **"I have known her for a while. Why is she even doing this? The amount of money and power she has with her owning the media in this town is baffling for her to even involve herself in something like this"** Singer asked really interested

 **"Back when she left someone in charge and left, she was looking for challenges, ways to better herself and discover new avenues of life. She didn't manage to get to any of that, but I do believe we told you what her real reasons are. She does want to help this city. You can imagine our surprise when that came to pass"** Barry replied nonchalantly

 **"She sees it as a challenge for herself and for the media to help people. This sounds odd coming from me seeing that the other papers don't do her any justice. She is rude and abrupt to all the people that would treat her differently just because she's rich and powerful. Most of all I think she hates suck ups. That's why she was pleasantly impressed when she met Barry and he treated her like he would treat anyone else. She is a good person and I have gotten to see that more and more the longer I worked for her"** Kara added to what Barry had replied earlier.

 **"Yes, but giving her confidential and potentially classified information can always be a security leak"** Singer told the two

 **"That's why she won't receive any of that sort of information. The data she will receive will come from our servers thanks to a program I designed. Everything that might contain sensitive information, something we acquired from the DEO or through informants that are working with the NCPD will be automatically scrubbed"** Barry offered to him

 **"So you trust her, but you don't?"** the Chief was surprised

 **"No. We do trust her. But the information will come digitally. Avenue of communication that can easily be hacked or corrupted or even edited to say something that is not really true. If that happens, it will turn into a media disaster, with not only her head on the line, but ours as well and it might deal a severe blow to the NCPD"** the speedster continued to explain his thinking

 **"We chose not to put that on her. If our servers get hacked then they get hacked. The information is on them anyway. Also we can consider it a criminal offense and go after the person that did that under the pretense of interfering with the police. IF she loses the information however, hacking a private computer is nothing more than a felony. The person might not even get Jail time and the PR disaster that would ensue would have us and her company smeared. It's safer this way, we control what goes out to her, so if there is an issue similar to what I've just told you, then whoever got the information wouldn't get much more than he could get from a simple information request from the NCPD"** Kara continued the explanation.

 **"Ok. I didn't think you two have planned this so thoroughly. Part of my mind just saw it as an impromptu idea that you would come up while drinking a coffee. Even with what you told me this morning. All right then, you have the go ahead from me"** the Chief was pleasantly surprised.

 **"When do you want us to schedule the press conference?"** Kara asked simply

 **"Why are you asking me? I'm not the one that's going to be in it"** Singer replied instantly

 **"What do you mean, Sir? The NCPD will have to have a representative to corroborate what Cat will be telling to people"** Barry looked strangely at the man who was now smirking.

 **"And it will. You two will be the representatives"**

 **"With all due respect sir, we're both pretty new here. We don't have the authority to represent the police. It would take someone who is well known and has experience with being a cop for a few years. Not a CSI turned detective and an ex reporter turned CSI"** Kara said sternly.

 **"You two are public figures after the Toyman incident. Nobody cares how long you have been in the force as long as they know you are out there and do good work. So, you two are going. Just don't forget to save me a seat"** the reply came with a knowing smirk.

 **"Understood, sir"** Barry replied as the two of them exited his office going back up to the Lab. They called Cat and told her that the two police representatives would be them and told her to call a press conference whenever it was more convenient for her. The media mogul decided to do it the next day in the morning, making a joke about how she doesn't really care about getting her eyebrows waxed with Oprah. Kara chuckled at that remembering how full her schedule was stuff that was just meant to keep up her socialite façade, which in truth she hated with a passion. While Kara was talking to Cat, Barry's phone rang as well. Alex was on the line.

 **"Hey Alex, is there any issue at the DEO?"** he asked.

 **"No, but there might be something. You two should get down here as soon as you can"** She replied.

 **"Ok. We'll be there in a bit. Kara is still ironing out some stuff about the press conference tomorrow"** He replied.

 **"What press conference?"** the agent asked.

 **"We're going to implement a new early warning and tracking system with Cat's help. Winn might need to be involved as well but we can talk more about that when we get there"** The speedster replied to her

 **"See you in a bit"** the line closed as Kara was finishing up her own conversation. **"We need to go to the DEO. Alex has something for us"** She nodded and they flashed out of the building via their usual route. They didn't change, the rate of speed Barry put out with her in his arms was too much for anyone to catch as nothing but a large blur, besides they had their suits with them. At the agency, Alex, Winn and J`onn in the form of Hank were all looking at something that the techie managed to pull up.

 **"Ok, we're here. What's the ruckus?"** Barry asked.

 **"You know I started to trail that guy that was following you? The spook?"** Alex replied. The two nodded letting her continue **"Well, he did go back to that warehouse a few times, you know the one where you lost him the first time. I lost him every time, but when Winn checked the security footage, he still came out of there a few hours later. There might be something under that warehouse. But I have not been able to ascertain what. Also, he took a few trips to a location outside the city a few times, nothing really that pushed the eye. Just a simple farm with a barn and a stable. However he did disappear there for a few hours as well"** She showed them the recordings.

 **"So there might be two location these people have bases. That warehouse and the farm"** Hank stated the obvious but with a grave tone in his voice.

 **"Did you ever manage to find out what Sam Lane's involvement in all this is?"** Kara inquired

 **"No, he is still a high ranking official of the military. Not even me with the power of the DEO have been able to get any source of reliable information on him. Most of the reports and what he has done has been heavily redacted and the originals are probably locked in some basement at the pentagon where nobody can get them"** He sighed.

 **"Any news on that Lillian Luthor lookalike?"** Barry asked remembering the woman that wanted supposedly to kill an entire city just because of a few aliens.

 **"Nothing. What you spotted back then, I have not been able to confirm. I have not even seen General Lane around. Just that guy. But that's not what I called you here. The last time that he came out of that farm, he didn't come out alone. He had 3 more people with him and they were all carrying kryptonite weapons. I think they might try to kill you again the next time you battle someone"** Alex told Kara with visible worry on her face.

 **"I'm not sure they want to kill Supergirl. Sure the kryptonite weapons are a dead giveaway, but those can be lethal to humans as well. It still doesn't make sense to me the fact that they followed me and Kara around the city"** Barry replied thinking on the issue at hand while sneakily grabbing Kara by the waist and bringing her closer to him.

 **"This might be why"** Winn showed them footage from inside the NCPD from the time that they captured Parasite. **"You have ties to the Flash and Supergirl. If they want to set a trap for those people then the next logical step would be to kidnap you and wait for the heroes"**

 **"Great. If they manage to do that then we'd be left with a pretty bad choice, either expose who we are or wait there and be tortured until they realize that nobody's coming"** Kara said with an annoyed look on her face.

 **"That would be a good choice. Or outright kill you so they would incite the heroes' rampage into avenging you and then they can point the finger and say look they are just people. They can turn bad just like any other criminal"** Alex replied.

 **"What's done is done. I doubt we can separate ourselves from our superhero personas when it comes to these people. We will just have to make due"** Barry said with a disgusted look on his face.

 **"Which reminds me. What is this press conference that you were talking about?"** Alex retorted

 **"Oh. We thought that with the help of Cat Grant we could put out notices for people that would know which metahumans or aliens are wanted by the police for various crimes and stay away from them or even report their location. That's why Winn had to be involved, with the amount of work we have, he would be the perfect person to manage that system for us and since the computers in the lab are tied into the DEO, that wouldn't even require much work"** Barry smiled.

 **"If it helps people to feel safe and actually stops them from killing themselves by running into a dangerous Meta or alien. I'm fine with it. I do mostly research work here and some engineering, running that system would be a nice addition"** Winn commented.

 **"Glad you`re on board. Barry can send you the system specs and the algorithms later. I might have studied enough to be a CSI, but I still have nothing on you two when it comes to computers"** Kara smiled looking at her boyfriend.

 **"I'm going to be there and have a DEO squad stand by. Something tells me this sort of event is what these people are waiting for. Be careful out there all right?"** Alex told them.

 **"We will. We'll have special passes delivered for you. So you can mingle through the crowd without drawing too much attention"** Barry replied

 **"J`onn, I have a favor to ask"** Kara turned to the large man behind her.

 **"What would that be?"** he asked looking confused at the person asking.

 **"Since we will be on the stage, could you step in as Supergirl if something arises? I never wanted this much publicity for Kara Danvers but it would be good if her and Supergirl would be in the same place"** Kara thought ahead.

 **"Sure. Not a problem"** The Martian replied without thinking too much

 **"Thank you. See you all tomorrow"** she replied as her and Barry were both leaving the DEO. It had gotten quite late, they spent way too much time discussing the unknown persons that were out for them.

The two decided on a quiet night inside, much like ... well ... any other night. They weren't tired, but they did have to get up early next morning for the 9 o clock press conference that Cat scheduled, so reluctantly they went to bed. Early morning they were both woken up by a sound that was not supposed to be there. Kara motioned Barry to stay quiet and looked around. Through the wall they saw two figures that were moving swiftly through the apartment coming close to their bedroom door.

 **"We have company. Two people, they are trying to come into the bedroom"** She whispered to Barry who disappeared. As the two tried to open the bedroom door, Barry showed up behind them by phasing through a few walls and knocked them out instantly. He searched the house in the span of a couple of seconds, while Kara came out and tied the two. The speedster found nothing, but in one of the bags of the men that were knocked out cold they found a whole set of every type of listening devices you could imagine. He came back with them put in a large Tupperware container. You could never be to careful, even if they looked new, that didn't mean they couldn't be on.

 **"Well this is new. I wonder why they would bother to put these here and then try to kill us"** Barry spoke looking at Kara

 **"Maybe they weren't trying to kill us, merely scare us, or kidnap one of us and make the other do their bidding?"** she replied.

 **"That is also a possibility, I think most of the people that know us know we`re together and it's not like we hide it anyway"** He replied. **"Where should we take these guys?"**

 **"I would guess at the DEO right now. J`onn and Alex can interrogate them. I would say take them to the police, but then if we have nothing to charge them with we would have to let them go. You know, breaking, bugging and entering is not something that is a capital offense"** Kara spoke. Before she could finish Barry flashed the two prisoners in cells at the DEO, sending a text message to Alex.

 **"You have two new guests in the holding cells. Some guys that tried to bug our house and apparently even kidnap one of us. Be careful with them and see if maybe they tell you anything. We need to get ready for the press conference"**

 **"Will do"** the reply came almost instantly, it was like Alex didn't even need sleep if something was involving Kara. He ran back to the apartment only to find Kara in the kitchen wearing an apron and making pancakes.

 **"That woke me up too. Sure we`re two normal people, but we aren't superstars or someone that would be really important. Why would some random black ops government agency, if it even is one, would bug our apartment?"** He asked sitting down

 **"I have no idea. I thought that us being part of the DEO to some extent would prevent other people from doing that. But I think right now this is a case of the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing"** Kara replied flipping a pancake.

 **"You might be right. The DEO is a pretty shadowy organization. To be honest I have no idea who our friendly Martian actually calls boss. Or who he reports to, if anyone. So the other agencies might not know what and how everything is connected. We became known people after the Toyman incident. Just for doing our jobs to be fair nothing more"** Barry rubbed the back of his neck in confusion

 **"Barry, you keep forgetting that it might not be any of that at all. The fact that we only saw General Lane talking to them might not mean anything. They could be just a rogue military cell with a bone to pick with aliens or metahumans"** Kara answered. Barry came up behind her caressing her thigh and kissing her neck.

 **"I know. Also I thought I should say good morning"** he chuckled. She turned kissing him on the lips while they held each other.

 **"Good morning to you too, dork"** she smiled brightly at the speedster.


	19. Attempt

Barry and Kara put on their two best suits, got their weapons and shields and left at a slow pace toward the NCPD. Kara was actually confused as to why they weren't going straight at the press conference.

 **"We need to get two bullet proof vests for ourselves"** Barry smiled at his girlfriend

 **"Why would we? I mean you can outrun a bullet and I'm basically indestructible…oh"** she realized as she said it **"We're going as Barry Allen and Kara Danvers"**

 **"Yes, we are. We aren't supposed to be anything than two normal people. If we get shot, then we give the appearance of being human and if someone wants to shoot you with a kryptonite bullet, the vest might do you some good, but the people will still see you take the hit"** Barry explained. Kara was not at all surprised at how good Barry was at planning ahead for any eventuality. She knew already that he would do anything to protect her, especially now since he couldn't go back and undo what happened. The two went to the precinct and got two vests and on the way back Barry excused himself and started to run. Kara saw in the distance as he split in two, one of them coming back to her.

 **"Preparing for the worst aren't you?"** she looked at him and smiled.

 **"Not really, but it would be good if there was another Flash that could keep people safe while Barry Allen speaks, don't you think?"** he smiled **"but yes, with him keeping an eye on us, I know he is able to stop any kind of threats that might come around even if I am on that stage"**

 **"Then I guess we're as ready as we'll ever be"** Kara replied as the two went into the CatCo building where the media mogul was waiting to talk to them. They needed to talk to her as well.

 **"Cat, before we go outside there's something you need to know. For the last few weeks there have been people that are supposed to be dead, following us"** Barry told her in the privacy of her office.

 **"Supposed to be dead? What do you mean?"** Cat asked a bit disturbed. She thought at first glance that he was talking about some supernatural threat and her not believing in that sort of thing, she immediately thought he was yanking her chain

 **"Spooks. People that were declared dead and somehow are not. This morning two of them try to bug our house"** Kara added.

 **"Great, more government bullshit"** Cat almost spat her words **"So why are you telling me this?"** Barry began to unbutton his jacket and showed her the vest he had underneath. **"I see. You expect something to happen"**

 **"Yes. I have contacted the Flash. He will be around to help, but we just wanted you to know that there might be that possibility. Just so you know what you`re walking into"** Kara told her friend.

 **"What about Supergirl?"** the media mogul asked.

 **"We have asked Flash to keep her out of this one. Since he's her boyfriend let's hope he can convince her. The people that were following us were wearing weapons specifically made to kill her. Also the last time they attacked, if Flash wasn't there she would have taken some pretty bad hits"** Kara replied then looked at Barry who chuckled, but then returned to a very serious face. **"These guys have something that can harm her. That's why we only asked for his help. Since he is a metahuman the substance that can harm Supergirl does not affect him"** the explanation came **"Unless he gets shot with a bullet made from that stuff, in which case he can be hurt as well. The Flash is just human in the end"**

 **"If that is indeed the case then good thinking you two. But doesn't that mean that the targets…"** she didn't manage to finish her sentence

 **"Yes. The targets will be me and Kara, if Supergirl doesn't show up. That's why we took precautions"** Barry replied.

 **"Are you sure you want to put yourselves out there for this? You could be killed. It's not far-fetched for the people that were following you to hire good snipers and you wouldn't know what hit you"** Cat looked at the two with worry. She didn't really tell them, but she had become fond of the two in the short time that they had been working together.

 **"Yes, we could. But we won't. Besides we have to do this, even if the press conference is attacked the people need to know what to expect and we won't be scared into submission by these spooks. Besides I know Supergirl to be pretty stubborn, she might show up even if her boyfriend asks her to not do that"** Kara said with conviction in her eyes but dawning a smile. Cat smiled, she remembered the mild mannered assistant that worked for her, the way that she second guessed herself in almost everything she did and possessed an unwavering innocence and naiveté that made her so bubbly and kind. This Kara however had conviction, determination and she was confident about what she and her boyfriend could do for the people of National City, the media mogul could not be sure if it was Barry's influence or just her growing up, but she was proud of what Kara had become.

 **"That's all that needs saying then. Let's get out there"** she replied.

 **"Aren't you getting a bulletproof vest yourself?"** Barry asked with a worried face.

 **"No, I'm counting on two of the NCPD's finest to have my back"** She grinned and the three got into her private elevator that connected her office directly to the lobby. Outside there were a lot of people that had been invited, Chief Singer and a few people at the NCPD were also present. Alex was there with Hank and Winn was watching the place via the cameras. Between the other reporters an unexpected face had appeared making Kara smile. Barry couldn't see who it was, lacking the vision Kara had, but once they got to the ground floor and exited the building he smiled as well. The figure was someone that was very familiar to them, a certain mild mannered reporter by the name of Clark Kent.

 **"I had no idea Clark was coming"** Barry smiled toward his girlfriend

 **"I'm just as surprised as you are. I guess the news of a press conference that involved me was something that he had to see for himself"** Kara grinned. Cat was her usual self, the moment she saw Clark she started to look just at him, nothing unusual as James once told her.

 **"I didn't say who were the NCPD representatives in the press release announcement, so unless he knows you work there now, he wouldn't know"** Cat suddenly replied at their discussions.

 **"He doesn't even know that I work for the police now, unless…"** Kara didn't manage to finish her sentence before she got cut off.

 **"Unless he read the articles about you two and the Toyman affair. They were running for at least three days and I know for a fact that were picked up by multiple media companies in the country"** the media mogul added grinning at the two who seemingly didn't realize how far their fame really went. The three walked over to the stage where the media event was being held and Cat went to speak.

 **"Hello everyone. This press conference has been called to announce the public that CatCo, in cooperation with the NCPD will be releasing each and every day in the paper two supplementary pages with threats that might appear or are already hiding in our city. This will evolve over time as the NCPD and CatCo cement their cooperation and this system will get more refined"** Cat announced **"After the recent events, you probably know Detectives Allen and Danvers from the NCPD, they will be handling this from the police's side"** the crowd strangely enough started to cheer when the names of the two were mentioned. Clark picked up on that right away smiling at the couple that was on stage. Barry and Kara were overwhelmed by the amount of positive feeling for them that the people put out. **"I'm going to let the two detectives explain more about how this will work. Detective Allen?"** Cat stepped aside and invited Barry to take the stand.

 **"Hello everyone. In the light of the new attacks that have gone on in this city and the fact that we depend a bit too much on two heroes that usually have their hands full, We have decided to give normal, peaceful people, metahumans and aliens a means to protect themselves and, why not, even help the police in their endeavors to catch criminals at large. As Ms. Grant said, CatCo will be adding two new pages every day that will contain threats. These threats, be there metahuman, alien or normal criminals will be provided from the NCPD database and they will contain names and pictures as well as a threat level for each person on the list. This threat level will consist of four levels, white, yellow, red and black. Later on after we have got this system up and running, the NCPD will provide a free mobile app that will be able to streamline the process.**

 **You see someone, if you can take a picture do so, if not, just pick the person you`ve seen and send the data. The app will provide a GPS tag that will be registered along with the information that you send. Be aware that the data you send will be anonymized and scrambled as to not be captured or intercepted by anyone else. This will enable us to further pinpoint a criminal's habits and where we could find them so that they could be brought into custody. The app will also contain a secondary category. As you all know there are criminals that everyone knows. They have been multiple times on TV and on other places. Those will not have threat levels unless they have already been spotted entering National City, but I do trust the citizens of this city to know what they are up against and who to steer clear of. The secondary category will enable you to ping us with data about someone that has not been on the daily list of people, but if they are at large, they need to be caught. Be mindful, if they are not in our database the request will not be processed. That means you can't report your neighbor for letting his dog do his business on your lawn or for the fact that he's listening to music at 2 in the morning"** Part of the crowd started to laugh at the coy remark. **"Now I invite my partner, Detective Danvers to explain to you the threat system in more detail"** Barry stepped down and offered a hand to Kara which took it to get to the microphone

 **"Good day to you all. As Detective Allen so eloquently put it earlier, there are four stages to a threat assigned to a criminal. Let's start with the lowest one, which is white, these are people that are generally peaceful, they do not enjoy killing and their crimes are victimless. We do have humans, metahumans and aliens that simply steal to live and nothing more, they want to be left alone to live their lives. While these are still crimes, the people in this category will more than likely not try to kill you, although do not suppose that if they are cornered or threatened they won't fight for their own survival, so do not attempt some sort of citizen's arrest or any other kind of vigilante justice.**

 **Threat level yellow will be reserved mostly for humans, the ones that have killed others. They will not have super powers, but do not engage unless you like the possibility of getting shot and killed. The people in this category will more than likely respond with violence if provoked which could lead to loss of not only your life, but the ones around you as well.**

 **Threat level red contains aliens, metahumans and select humans that have killed and have proven that they will do so without remorse if someone gets in their path. With superpowers or not as the case may be, but harboring a killing intent, this means that if you approach them, you will more than likely get murdered without as much as a chance to escape. These are the types of ruthless people that will not stand down from killing a simple witness just because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and sometimes even brag about it. My recommendation would be to avoid these individuals at any cost.**

 **Last but not least, threat level black, or what me and my partner would call superhero level threats. The metahumans and aliens in this category are extremely dangerous, they will kill you more than likely without a second thought and they are classed like this because they could potentially be a problem for our National City heroes as well. The only recommendation I can give you if and when you spot these people, leave the area immediately and go to a shelter or somewhere you can hide out. This level of threat means that these individuals are not only threat to you as a person and everyone around you, but to National City as well. Always remember, while the information you send is always appreciated, we would request that you do not do so at your own personal risk. It doesn't matter if the GPS tag is here or 5 meters in any direction where you could be safe from being seen. As we regard the safety of the people of this city as paramount, we do urge you to be safe while you try to give us the info we need.**

 **We hope that what we have started here today will help the citizens' count more on the police and with the information provided we can all make this city a safer place. Our superheroes, if they so wish, will be given access to this data so they might prevent something before it happens. Prevention is always better than damage control, I always say. Now, how about we take some questions?"** Kara smiled at the crowd. Cat was stunned, the blonde was always shy about talking in public and taking interviews, but right now she was working the masses like she would herself. Offering them enough information and making sure that the people stay safe while helping the NCPD. She almost wiped a tear from her eye seeing this evolution of Kara from the time she was an assistant to what she had become. Clark raised his hand sheepishly and Kara smiled **"Yes, Mr. Kent? I see you over there"**

 **"Detective Danvers, could the system be compromised so some threat levels could be lowered and some could be raised? It would be pretty unfortunate if someone ran and hid from a person that has a conviction of stealing eggs"** he posed a very interesting question indeed.

 **"No, the system is separate from any outside intrusion and the persons it puts out are taken by us, examined and then sent to CatCo. Since the algorithm by which threat level is assigned was constructed by Detective Allen, with a bit of help from yours truly, we would know if something has been altered, so Ms. Grant will not be receiving false information. The security measures that are in place prevent specifically this kind of scenario"** Kara replied to her cousin who seemed pretty impressed by what she had said.

 **"Could anyone change the designations as they reach CatCo?"** He asked.

 **"Again no. The system we use has been encrypted and the mails can only be viewed by Ms. Grant on a secure terminal that we will provide for her. That terminal will only be able to be used via a secure authentication protocol involving biometrics. We have made this system as tamper proof as we can make it at the current time. There will be some other protocols involved that Detective Allen and I are working on, but I am not at liberty to discuss those at this time"** She responded again with a stern voice. Clark was satisfied with the answers so he let other reporters take their turn. Kara managed to put all their worries to rest in a professional manner that amazed Clark. He had not seen Kara like this before, very succinct and on point, answering the crowd as best she could and without any sort of hesitation. It was a complete surprise to him the way she handled the crowd.

As she was answering another set of questions, this time from a reporter in Central City, shots were fired from somewhere. Kara took a hit, falling down on the stage, another bullet hitting Barry which fell himself. The crowd started to panic seeing the two take a dive. The third bullet was caught inches from Cat's face by the Flash, which pushed the media mogul behind the microphone stand for cover. Clark disappeared from the crowd rather fast and not a moment too soon. An army of drones much like the ones that were used by Corben to try to kill Lena Luthor made their appearance. Opening their gun ports to take shots the officers that were attending the conference, they started to fire. Luckily for the people that were there that Superman made an appearance shielding the onlookers from the bullets. Flash had come on the scene as well stopping near Kal with his usual gust of wind and trail of lightning.

 **"I'm going to look for the people that took the shots. Can you handle the drones?"** He asked.

 **"Yes, but how are you there and here?"** Kal asked with a confused face.

 **"I'll tell you later, Kal. Don't worry we were expecting this, both are wearing bullet proof vests. Initially the shots were aimed at their heads but I managed to redirect them to hit the armor, so they could take the impact. They should be all right. I wasn't surprised however to see where the bullets were aimed at, the shooter must have predicted that they would be wearing armor"** the Flash told him as he disappeared again in a trail of lightning. To Superman's surprise, Supergirl made an appearance as well. It was the second surprise he had for the day, because Kara was on the stage fallen down after being shot. But after receiving a mental message he realized it was J`onn morphed into Kara's appearance. The Martian was in the crowd as Hank and quickly left after the shootings to come help as Kara asked of him earlier.

The drones were too much for two people to handle. Superman and J`onn in the form of Supergirl were having trouble just to keep people from being hit and making sure the bullets that bounced off them would not hit anyone else. To their surprise, a now woken up Kara Danvers took out her two weapons and started blasting away at the drones. Barry got up himself and was doing the same. They were in luck, the construction was nowhere near as sturdy as the ones that Corben used on his last attack. As a result, Barry's small caliber shots did manage to damage them, but Kara's cannons made them explode outright with one well-placed shot. Cat stood behind the podium that had the microphones, taking cover from the fire and watched as the two people near her made shot after shot into the multitude of drones that kept falling out of the sky. It was unreal for her to see someone with Kara's frame handle two large guns as easily as she did. Cat did take self-defense classes and shooting practice like any red blooded American, but she never could get close to try the ones that Barry was using, not to mention Kara's ones. Then she remembered what Barry had told her about the small blonde looking menacing if she had two large weapons. He was completely right, she did look pretty menacing from where she was standing.

 **"Barry, I need some more ammo, I'm running low. Do you still have my spares?"** she yelled at her partner who immediately nodded and threw her two full clips. Kara did not risk blasting the drones with her heat vision with people watching her and with Cat being so close would mean exposing her secret. It wasn't that she didn't trust Cat, but she would prefer doing that on her own terms. **"Thank you, darling"** she quipped reloading her guns.

 **"With pleasure, beautiful. I have two more in my coat if you miss too much"** Barry winked at his girlfriend.

 **"With you being the person who taught me how to aim properly? You know for a fact that won't happen"** She grinned **"Stop pulling my chain"** Barry grinned back. Cat remained frozen at this exchange that took place between the two. In a firefight with armed drones that were out to kill everyone, they both kept their cool to such a degree that they even found time to flirt while they were shooting them out of the sky. These two were something else. Superman caught on to what they were doing and while protecting the people from the hail of bullets he would also blast the drones that would even think to target the two people on the stage with his heat vision. Chief Singer as well as Alex managed to get through the shots and joined the two on the stage opening fire themselves at the drones that were in range. Singer saw the exchange and replied to the two with a smirk while shooting

 **"You two will find time to flirt even if there are assassins after you. How do you even control yourself from doing that all day at work?"**

 **"We're just being professional, Chief"** Kara quipped and Barry gave him a nod which made him chuckle. Not before long all the drones were downed. J`onn made sure he wouldn't use powers that were not in Supergirl's arsenal, Superman was fine, which was surprising because the couple expected the drones to carry Kryptonite bullets. The Flash came back empty handed and stopped on the stage in front of the two that were dusting their clothes, rubbing his forehead.

 **"Damn. The person that fired those shots is dead"** He told the two. Superman and Supergirl landed on the stage where the Flash was. **"It looked like it was a timed charge at the base of his skull tied into the trigger of the rifle he used. After the first shot went off, he had at the most 10 seconds left to live. I left the body at the NCPD and the gun he used back in your lab. Hopefully you two can get something out of it"** He looked at Kara and Barry.

 **"Thank you, we will try to get as much out of it as we can. These people are professionals and they won't shy away from killing one of their own to keep their identities secret. But at least we showed them that we can't be intimidated"** Barry said

 **"The problem is that now they have two attempts that have failed. I suspect they will be stepping up their game pretty soon"** Kara said with a worried look. Barry nodded.

 **"Are you two all right?"** Superman asked. The couple unbuttoned their shirts and showed the people the vests that had each caught a bullet.

 **"So you came prepared"** Supergirl smiled. It was a bit awkward for Kara to see J`onn in her form

 **"We did. We did expect some sort of an attempt, like we have already told you two, but nothing on this scale"** Kara told the heroes.

 **"The attack with the drones was orchestrated to give time to the shooter to get away. I can't see any reason beyond that for harming innocent people. They would have killed everyone here just for that. If nothing, these people are terrorists"** Barry told the group with anger in his eyes.

 **"Then why have a charge implanted at the back of his neck if this was a diversion"** Superman asked quite baffled

 **"If Flash is right, then the charge was put in place as a countermeasure. I'm guessing that they didn't expect all of you to be here. The charge could be activated by the shots, but could have also been remotely triggered"** Kara explained to them. Kal was taken aback by the way she explained everything with such ease and her deductive reasoning that lead her to a new but possible conclusion.

 **"Then what was all this? A warning? And if it was, for whom was it meant?"** Supergirl asked.

 **"I do not know. But the fact that they tried to kill us as the NCPD representatives' maybe we were supposed to be the "warning shots"** **to the precinct not to try what we had proposed"** Barry replied.

 **"That seems like a valid theory, it could also have been a warning for Ms. Grant. Not to cooperate with the police in this endeavor. Maybe they do not like the fact that the police would have much more coverage with her help"** Flash added

 **"All theories are valid at this point as we do not have enough evidence to confirm or infirm any of them. Me and Barry will go through the body that Flash deposited for us at the NCPD and we shall see what we find, but somehow…"** She didn't finish her sentence

 **"I doubt that we will find anything, just like in the case of the other ghosts"** Barry completed her sentence and she nodded **"Nonetheless. Thank you for the help. A lot of people would have died if you weren't around"** Cat was witness to this exchange as was Singer. The way the two detectives talked to the heroes was almost like they were talking to old friends.

 **"No sweat"** the Flash responded **"Glad we could help. Although the warning that you gave us prior to coming was very useful. Also, welcome to National City, Superman"** He smiled at Kal, which still did not know how Barry could be in two places at once.

 **"No problem and glad to be here"** Kal took his hand and shook it. The people that were at the conference calmed down as the heroes and the two detectives talked among themselves. Cat decided to end the conference due to the risk of them being hit again. Everyone agreed. Superman and Supergirl left, the two making an appearance as Clark and J`onn back in the crowd. Flash zipped away, as the time remnant returned back to the Speed Force.

As the conference ended the media mogul went back to her office and the rest of the people went to the DEO except Kara and Barry who went back to examine the evidence. Since nobody was around they worked at super speed only to gather all the evidence. They didn't find much, the explosive used to blow the man's head was planted at the base of the skull and they had detected normal traces of regular c4. Kara did however take a full set of fingerprints. Barry disassembled the gun and managed to get two partial fingerprints that yielded nothing from their own systems so they kept them for when they would go to the DEO. The bullet that Flash had stopped from hitting Cat had an etching of the letter G on the back. The ones that hit them were too destroyed to be reconstructed. The two sped into the DEO where the others were waiting, including Superman.

 **"Winn, we found these partials on the gun and two complete sets from the dead man, can you see if they match anything?"** Kara asked him

 **"Sure. But I'm betting a box of donuts that we won't get far even if we do find out who these belong to"** Winn said rather sad.

 **"I'm not taking that bet"** Barry laughed.

 **"Nice job today. Nobody was hurt and you made your message heard by the people of National City"** Hank told them with his usual voice. The two took it as a compliment.

 **"Fancy shooting too, I knew what you could do from that time when we went to the firing range, but damn, the way you took down those drones at the start was impressive in itself"** Alex congratulated the two. Superman was the last person that came and by the look on his face, there was a lot to talk about. The three moved to a table that was free in the cafeteria, much like the first time they talked and sat down.

 **"So, Detective at the NCPD huh? Radical change of career, Kara"** Kal told his cousin **"What brought that on?"**

 **"Cat left for a few months and left Jimmy in charge. He was a jerk, since Lucy left back for Metropolis he wanted some attention. Attention that I wasn't about to give him since Barry was here. I couldn't take his bullshit anymore so I quit CatCo"** Kara told him

 **"I see, it seems that you were right, Barry. James was more of a pain than a help"** Kal remembered his discussion with the speedster.

 **"Well, I didn't really like the way he was treating Kara so ... I kind of threatened to run him out to an undiscovered deserted island and let him there to die of starvation when he tried to use his signal watch to call you"** Barry smirked.

 **"He's all right though, right?"** Kal asked

 **"Of course. I did promise I wouldn't harm him. I only threatened him with the island stuff and even if I did do that, I would have told you where I put him. I keep my promises, Kal"** the speedster assured Superman **"But I also don't like people being jerks to my girlfriend, to it took a bit of … restraint not to clock him a few"**

 **"Besides, he did it to himself. Cat didn't like the way he treated me so he fired him and put a ban on all her media trusts to not hire him back. Which basically makes his career a nonexistent issue"** Kara replied making Kal look at them quite surprised.

 **"I had heard he came back to Metropolis to look for Lucy, but nothing more. So, Barry, you said girlfriend. You two are a thing now?"** Superman smiled. Kara stood up and back in Barry's lap

 **"Yes, we're a thing now"** She told her cousin **"Is that a problem?"** she asked sheepishly almost like trying to lure Kal to say something

 **"Not really, I predicted this would happen since the first time I found out this Barry is single"** Kal laughed **"Which reminds me, how can you be in two places at once?"** Superman inquired quite bluntly looking at Barry

 **"It's a skill speedsters have. Because we can travel through time we are able to make something that we call Time remnants. He was basically me, but from 1 second into the past. It's difficult to explain. Since I can't travel in time anymore I'm surprised I still can make them. But as you`ve seen they are quite useful"** Barry tried to explain how they worked as clearly as possible for him

 **"So you can make doubles of yourself. Is there any limit to how many you can do?"** Kal asked.

 **"I have no idea. I've never made more than 5 so I can't answer that question"** Barry answered truthfully. **"I could probably make more, but it does take a lot of energy so I don't know"** Kal nodded

 **"Kara, why the NCPD? I had no idea you wanted to be a detective, or it doesn't even have anything to do with that"** the question came

 **"Well, you know how fast we can learn new things. I wanted to spend more time with Barry and while I was writing articles from his lab anyway, while I still was at CatCo, I became fascinated with the way he does his work. He trained me, gave me stuff to read, showed me what to do. So after I left from CatCo, I landed a job as a CSI. Since we were handling metahuman cases and alien ones, the Chief promoted Barry to detective, even if it's highly irregular, so we could go out and investigate our own cases"** Kara started to explain **"Barry already knew how to shoot and Singer said that he would sleep better at night if I could take care of myself so ... yet again, Barry trained me to aim, because Alex had already taught me the basics of guns, he also got me these"** Kara pulled both her guns and put them on the table for Kal to inspect. He noticed the beauty and the craftsmanship that went into them **"as a present for getting the job"**

 **"We had the news of you two catching Toyman all the way to Metropolis. That's why I decided to come check on you. I was surprised when I saw Barry in a suit and my baby cousin in an evening gown taking him out and shoving him into a van"** Kal laughed.

 **"After that, since the mayor and the chief of police were at that party, I got promoted to detective as well from CSI and that's how we ended up where we are"** Kara smiled.

 **"I see from your smile that you enjoy your job almost as much as being Supergirl"** Kal spoke

 **"I do. I can save people as Supergirl, from the super powered threats and as Kara Danvers, from the normal ones. Besides, gives me an excuse to be with my boyfriend all day"** Kara grinned making Kal chuckle.

 **"Doesn't it make it difficult to keep who you are now that you`re in the limelight? I mean you know I've always kept a low profile and everything precisely of that reason"** Kal looked at her hugging Barry.

 **"It might be, yes. I didn't really want to be famous. We both got here by being really good at our jobs, which we love doing. Now we just have to deal with it"** Kara stated bluntly making Kal smile. She had always asked for help or for opinions if she needed them, but now it didn't seem like that would be the case. She knew exactly what she wanted.

 **"So, did you just come all the way over here to pay us a visit, Kal?"** Barry was playing with a lock of blonde hair

 **"Actually, I was sent here to interview the people that proposed the new system for the NCPD as a way to maybe get some data and implement it in Metropolis if it works here. Also, we wanted our own news about the people that managed to outthink Toyman"** Kal stated quite bluntly. **"However I can stay if you have problems and maybe I can help"**

 **"We do enjoy your company, to tell you the truth, but there's nothing that you really can help with sadly. We don't even know who we're up against. Every time we get attacked by these guys, all they leave behind are clues we can't use, corpses that don't have identification and weapons that cannot be traced back to whoever bought them"** Barry replied sounded really frustrated.

 **"We were actually afraid that these guys would use kryptonite bullets in the drones. That's why we chose to go like this and getting vests. Kryptonite or not they are still bullets. We had no idea you`d be in town, you could have been in real trouble, Kal"** Kara told her cousin.

 **"Kryptonite bullets? What gave you that idea?"** he asked.

 **"We were attacked a while back while fighting Metallo. The bullets that were used were specifically for Supergirl. I managed to catch two and took on in the back, but the rock never got to her. The man that fired them, came up as dead, in a government operation. So, that's why we kept calling them spooks. That's why Kara called you the last time to tell you to be careful"** Barry replied

 **"Let's go back to Winn maybe he found something"** Kara got up from Barry's lap and started walking back to the consoles. Winn was pretty annoyed. You could see it on his face. **"What's up, did you find anything?"**

 **"Look for yourself"** The records that he had up were the same as the other person whose fingerprints they had obtained. It was the same thing as the man that was following them. Killed in action in a mission in Syria, at the exact same time. The two CSI's immediately found a pattern in that.

 **"Winn, can you find out who …"** Barry started

 **"Was on that mission? If there are other members that died in the same operation then …"** Kara continued

 **"We will have to keep an eye out for them as well"** Barry finished. Kal looked at them and chuckled. Winn smiled and started looking

 **"You two rock. I found another 7 people that were dead in the same place at about the same time with the same story. An IED to the face that made their bodies only recognizable by fingerprints. Also you two realize you keep finishing each other's sentences, right?"** Winn looked at the two seeing Kara blush. **"I'll put these guys onto the usual watch list and give you a ping if something comes up"**

 **"Ok, I'm going to go back to my place and we can talk more tomorrow about that interview. Send me everything you have on these guys, Kara. I'll try to poke around with my sources maybe I can give you a lead. Good night"** Kal told them as he was floating out of the DEO.

 **"Good night, see you tomorrow"** the two answered. Kara asked Winn to put the data that he could gather on a flash drive so she could give it to her cousin.

 **"We're going to go home as well, getting shot makes one ... tired and hungry"** Barry commented as he heard the subtle sound of Kara's stomach.

 **"Good night everyone."** Kara smiled as Barry picked her up. The sight wasn't surprising except when they flashed out of the DEO still wearing their normal clothes. Winn chuckled at the two as he went back to his work.


	20. Theft

Barry and Kara had finished their case load at the NCPD and invited Cat out for lunch. There was another reason that they wanted to do that, they had to give her something pertaining to one of the protocols that involved the system they wanted to implement. Kara had shipped a secure laptop over to the media mogul. Now all they needed to do is give her the access key to it. That was something that Barry had come up with, with Kara helping him. She had to read a lot of books on genetics but the girl of steel got everything in time for her to be able to help. As usual they were meeting in the restaurant that had her own private space where they could talk.

 **"Hello, you two"** Cat greeted **"What's the occasion?"**

 **"What? Do we need to have a reason to call you to lunch? Maybe we just wanted to see how you`re doing after the shooting at the press conference"** Kara smiled

 **"Well we do have a reason, but mostly to see how you`re faring"** Barry replied

 **"I'm fine. I was right to trust you two to know what you`re doing. Nobody got hurt. I received that package you sent from the NCPD, except I can't seem to be able to open it"** the media mogul seemed a bit worried about that

 **"We know. Remember we said at the conference that it will require biometric authentication. What we didn't say was what kind. We didn't want to subject you to fingerprint or retinal scans so … we came up with something else"** Barry pulled out a ring that at first glance looked like a normal gold band, nothing fancy, with no decorations or nothing written on it.

 **"A ring? That's highly irregular, besides you know I rarely wear jewelry, Kara"** She smiled at the blonde.

 **"It only looks like one. We thought it would be best like this since you could always have it on your person and since it's on your hand you can't lose it. Put it on"** Kara smiled. Cat did as she was asked and Barry touched it. In a few seconds, the form of the ring changed and an intricate pattern appeared with a message on the side. **"Cat"**

 **"That's interesting. What just happened?"** she asked.

 **"The ring is coded to your DNA now. We made a reset switch, if me or Kara touch it then it will void everything and the next person that wears it will recode the ring. In this case, as long as you wear it and you`re within a meter of the laptop we sent you, you will be automatically authenticated and you can use the station. DNA authentication is the most secure thing we could come up with. Also this way we skip all the annoying scanning of biometrics whenever you need to unlock the laptop"** Barry explained to the media mogul

 **"So it will return to blank if I take it off?"** she inquired

 **"Yes. In case you take it off or someone takes it off you the ring will automatically turn blank and the station closed. If someone else puts it on, that doesn't have your specific DNA structure the ring will not activate, but it will send out an alert to us as well as trying to get pictures of the person who stole it if they want to access the data we send you"** Kara explained.

 **"This all seems pretty high tech coming from two Detectives, are you sure you guys aren't scientists in disguise?"** Cat started to laugh

 **"Cat, you do seem to forget that I am a CSI at the core not a detective. That implies scientist and with Kara learning all she can from me and trust me, she picks up stuff phenomenally fast, you could actually say that we're two scientists masquerading as cops"** Barry chuckled.

 **"Doesn't seem that way to me. You seem to be pretty good at the cop stuff. So now with this the laptop will work?"** she inquired.

 **"Yes. It already had the updates for tomorrow. We sent them this morning"** Kara smiled at the media mogul.

 **"Then it's high time I go to work. Thank you for trying to make this passkey not that obvious. I'm sure people won't ask why I bought myself a new ring that seems to change if I take it off"** Cat smirked

 **"Here's a solution for you then. Don't take it off. Just say it's a present from us"** Barry told her quite seriously.

 **"That might not be such a bad idea. Although people wouldn't believe that there would actually be someone that would give me a present. Remember I'm not that well seen by many"** She chuckled.

 **"It doesn't matter. We see the real Cat. The rest can think whatever they want"** Barry grinned. **"Take care. If there's a problem with anything related to the new system don't hesitate to call"** Cat was surprised that he would be so blunt. They had indeed seen another facet of her that nobody was deemed worthy until now. A smile on her face appeared, something that the two were not accustomed seeing coming from the person in front of them.

 **"I won't. You two take care as well"** she replied leaving toward CatCo as the two looked at each other baffled. They got torn from their surprise however when Barry's phone rang. It was Chief Singer.

 **"You two need to head to L Corp right away. There has been a break in and Lena requested you personally to handle the matter"**

 **"We're on it sir"** Barry replied. They separated, he flashed to the NCPD to grab a CSI kit and then headed straight to L Corp. In front of the building, Kara was waiting for him with an ice cream. She of course had one for herself which she had almost finished. Barry took a seat and started to eat the ice cream as well.

 **"I don't think I have ever seen Cat with such a large smile on her face"** Kara said with a pensive look on her face **"Even when she was happy about something, she always looked like she had a meh face. Do you think she really believes that what she does now can really make a difference?"**

 **"Of course it can make a difference. If we two can make a difference at our normal day jobs, two people that don't have nowhere near the amount of money that Cat has or influence, then she can probably do much more that we can"** Barry commented speeding through his ice cream but making sure nobody could see him

 **"I'm glad she wanted to help. I always thought as her as a good person even if her attitude was bad. Not only toward me but toward the other people at CatCo"** The blonde smiled at him. **"Let's go. I have met Lena and she seldom likes to be kept waiting"**

The duo walked up to the building showing their badges to the guard downstairs. He left them in without too much fuss and they went upstairs where Lena's assistant showed them right in. They were expected after all.

 **"Kara, welcome and I see you have brought your handsome partner with you"** Lena gave a smirk to the couple. **"I was really surprised to find out that you had changed jobs. Last we talked you were a reporter, now I find out that you have CSI training and after you two have managed to capture Toyman, now you`re both detectives?"**

 **"You know, when you don't seem to be able to do the job that you want correctly due to unforeseen circumstances then you need to take up something else you like. I had all but forgotten my training. I'm glad I have had Detective Allen here to show me the ropes once again"** Kara chuckled.

 **"It did come as a complete surprise to me. I never knew you had this side to yourself that wanted to do something like you are doing now. But now when this happened I thought with your new job you could lend me a hand"** Lena said truthfully

 **"To be perfectly honest with you Lena, I was always interested in this. Proof of that is the fact that I have the training. But the major deciding factor what that I was going to work with him"** Kara pointed at Barry who not wanting to enter the discussion stood at a side looking at the room itself.

 **"Boyfriend?"** Lena approached Kara and whispered. The alien blonde nodded blushing a bit. **"I see, welcome both of you then"** Lena offered a hand to the speedster that shook it sternly.

 **"So what can we do for you, Ms. Luthor?"** Barry asked with a quizzical look on his face.

 **"Please, call me Lena. Any good friend, or in this case boyfriend, of Kara's is a friend of mine"** She smiled and Barry nodded **"Six hours ago there was a break in on the 15th floor. The thieves left with an experimental microchip, the plans for an advanced surface to air guidance system for missiles and get this, the only prototype of a personal shield that we were working on for the military"** She started walking and the two went with her as they talked.

 **"Those don't really sound like things that you'd want stolen"** Kara realized

 **"I don't really want anything stolen from me"** Lena smirked **"But you are right, those three things are the most cutting edge tech that we have been developing here"**

 **"Do you have any footage of the attack?"** Barry asked while getting stuff in his kit ready

 **"That's the weird part. The footage doesn't really show anything. I can show it to you after we go to where everything happened, but the cameras seems to have either been circumvented or avoided all together"** Lena replied and the speedster nodded. As they walked Barry started to notice that on the floor that was broken into all the doors had mag locks with fingerprint and retinal scan. Kara noticed it as well but didn't really say anything. The trio arrived in the front of a door, only this one was visibly reinforced and had the same locking mechanisms like the others ones, only this was permanently opened. The lock had been bypassed.

 **"This building has 57 floors. Getting into this floor could only be done via two access routes. Either through the elevator that was down stairs or by rappelling down from another floor. The problem is that none of the windows here seem to be open, which would eliminate the latter"** Kara walked outside the room. Barry was already dusting and taking prints from the most obvious places that a human hand would be placed.

 **"You`re right, Kara but the problem here is something else. If they knew exactly the route to take to come here, that means someone from the company told them where to find what they were looking for. Even if this was the most secure room on this floor, they still had 56 others to pick from. Hell, the prototypes could be hidden in Lena's office or in a toilet at the back of the 13th floor"** Barry replied while getting busy collecting all the evidence he found while looking around.

 **"I don't really keep prototypes in my office, Barry. The toilet thing actually sounds quite interesting, I might be able to turn one of those into a secret entrance to a vault"** Barry and Kara looked at her and seeing the smirk on her face started to laugh **"But you two do make an interesting point. How did they know where the prototypes were held?"** Lena asked herself the same question.

 **"Barry, there is another possibility. Lena, how secure is your internal network from outside cyber-attack?"** Kara asked nonchalantly like she had been doing this for 20 years.

 **"The internal network is separate from any known outside entry. Most people have two computers in their laboratories. One for outside use and their personal tablets or laptops for internal use. Those never leave the building and they can only be used here"** Lena explained to them looking pretty surprised at Kara.

 **"We will need that security footage, so we'll take a look at the access logs as well, see if there have been any shenanigans done to your system"** Barry replied. He was more interested in what he had found on the handle of the door. A set of prints, an index and a thumb, probably belonging to the man that opened the door. As Kara walked the room she suddenly started feeling more and more sick. Then she saw it. A necklace, with a piece of kryptonite that was sculpted into an L shape that looked like the original LuthorCorp insignia. She stepped back moving toward Barry visibly nauseous.

 **"Excuse me, I need to use the bathroom"** She said moving toward the end of the hall. Barry noticed the red and green lines on her necklace and moved into the room himself looking for clues around the stand where the green rock was put. Kara came back with quite a sick face. Lena however was in the mood for jokes.

 **"So, morning sickness?"** she looked at Kara almost not being able to hold her laughter.

 **"Who? What? No. Nothing like that. Come on. I think I had something that didn't agree with me this morning. Why would I have morning sickness?"** Kara blushed profusely at the thought of what Lena was implying

 **"I don't know, you do have a boyfriend and accidents do happen"** Lena laughed but she was interrupted by the speedster.

 **"Lena, mind if I ask why do you have a piece of Kryptonite in your possession?"** Barry's face was really blank at the time.

 **"That necklace belonged to Lex. It's always been here and will probably never leave. We know now that Kryptonite, if held on someone's person for a long time, can provoke cancer. So instead of wearing it, I stored it in here. It's behind leaded glass so everyone should be safe from any effect though"** Lena told them.

 **"Here's the thing. It's not behind leaded glass"** Barry took out a small Geiger counter and the thing began beeping like mad when he touched it to the glass **"When was the last time you came in here to check on this heirloom?"**

 **"Last week? I don't come here that often, sadly as much as I love Lex as a brother, I can't agree with what he did"** she sighed looking at them

 **"Then this was more than likely either a trap or a warning for Supergirl. This is normal glass. If she would have come anywhere near this containment vessel she could have been injured. But that doesn't make sense, why just leave something that could weaken her and not finish her off"** Barry spoke and both women looked at him

 **"To be fair, this could have been something to make sure that Lena gets sick if she spends too much around the rock too"** Kara added to the conversation.

 **"That is a possibility as well and its not to be discounted, Lena probably has powerful enemies that would not mind waiting for her to die"** Barry took out a leaded radiation proof bag from his kit that was usually used to store any sort of radioactive evidence and put the necklace inside and back in the case **"That should protect you from the radiation until you can get another lead case, Lena"** he smiled at her.

 **"Thank you. I'm going to get someone to remake that as soon as you leave"** She smiled back at both Kara and him.

 **"I'm done with the fingerprints here. Did you find anything else?"** the blonde asked him

 **"Yeah. You two come look at this"** he pointed to a small burn point that was visible from one of the outlets in the room. **"What does this remind you of, Kara?"**

 **"Live Wire"** she sighed **"I know that she escaped but why would she come here. This doesn't make any sort of sense"**

 **"No it doesn't. But it does bring something more interesting into the equation. What if this robbery wasn't just one event, it was two. One item was taken by Leslie and two by whoever managed to get into the door"** Barry dusted the display case of the kryptonite necklace and found another set of prints as they were talking.

 **"That would be pretty coincidental. I mean sure it can happen, but I'm pretty sure Leslie would have killed anyone else that was in here when she arrived"** Kara added. **"Lena, what was the highest value between the three things that were stolen. Think in the eventuality that they were bought on the black market"**

 **"That's easy. Only the chip would have had value on the black market, the other two technologies were developed for the military. Nobody would buy those because they could be tracked to them pretty easily"** she answered.

 **"Yeah, but why. Leslie isn't a thief. She's just … nuts I guess. She also has the hots for Cat Grant and not in the good kind of way. I don't think there's anything else we can collect from here, Barry, we went around the room twice"** Kara retorted.

 **"Maybe for the money? I don't know. With her powers she could have become a thief or a "procurer". Anyway, you`re right. We`re done here. Lena, can you take us to see the footage and maybe give me access to the mainframe for a bit? I need to check if there have been any forced entries or hack attempts"** Barry replied. She nodded leading them back to the elevator and up to the 45th level where the mainframe was housed.

 **"You want me to call a tech? This framework is proprietary and you haven't worked with it you might get lost in the commands"** Lena replied but Barry denied the help, sitting down and starting to tinker away. She was surprised, the speedster had proven to be very good at quite of a lot of things and Kara was rapidly following in his footsteps.

 **"This was not your ordinary job. The videos have been looped. See this?"** he pointed to the timecodes and waited for a few seconds. As the image of the corridor appeared again the timecodes reset.

 **"Yeah. So there was some sort of outside access. Can you find where that connection originated?"** Kara asked putting down the CSI kit.

 **"Second floor, room 208"** Barry showed her the last request the unknown connection had put into the system. Lena pulled up the building plans and was surprised to find out that the room that Barry just called out was nothing more than a storage area. Typically it shouldn't have had a connection to the system **"Kara, mind checking that out while I finish here?"** he asked.

 **"No, be right back"** she replied and disappeared leaving Barry with Lena.

 **"Morning sickness, huh? You`re a real riot, Lena"** the speedster smiled

 **"Well how would I know what's going on. Kara had a really tough time with relationships. Kind of like me, with my family and all"** she trailed off, Barry saw the looming shadow on her face.

 **"I don't know you that well personally, except from what I've read. Here's the deal, family defines you as a person in your first years of life, but after you become an adult, there is always a choice. Family does not control you, sure, the Luthor name might be tied to some pretty gruesome shit, but that doesn't mean it has to tie you in that as well. Maybe you need to show to the world that the name you are carrying isn't just a synonym for a madman, but something that you could be proud of carrying forward in the light by your own actions"** Barry said nonchalantly while continuing his work. Lena was dumbstruck. She was pretty sure that Kara had not said anything of their previous conversations, she could keep a secret and here was this guy that he barely knew, reading her out like an open book.

 **"That's what I've been trying to do. I'm getting sick of being compared to Lex sometimes. He was his own man, I am my own woman. I wish people would understand that already"** Lena said with frustration on her face. It was strange, she was opening up to this man who she had never met until now.

 **"Then you could stop with the weapon development. I don't know, get a biology department, a biochemistry department, go into another business. The business of healing people instead of making weapons to kill them, or into scientific advancement instead of mutually assured destruction. Do you think that if for example, L Corp found a cure for cancer or for Alzheimer's, that the people would give a damn that it's Lex's old company? I think not. You would be acclaimed as the person who's company managed to do that, you, on your own, not as the sister of a madman that tried to blow up everything and kill Superman"** The speedster replied again very nonchalantly, realizing that he was actually talking to a millionaire and wanted to apologize for the perceived forcefulness in his voice, but he didn't manage.

 **"You know, I've never had someone that told it as bluntly as you just did. Kara tried to show me that there is good in anyone, but I didn't want to believe her, even though I went away from the old ways of the Luthors. But you might be right, maybe it's time that I go into that sort of thing"** Lena replied cutting him off almost instantly

 **"Kara is right. There is good in everyone. You just need to know how to bring it into the light. Family does not determine who you are. You do. Be a force of good in the world and in time your name will be separated from what has happened and you won't be haunted by the actions that came before you, doesn't matter if you were the one that did them, or your blood, or your family"** Barry spoke softly as he typed on the console in front of him **"I have been there and trust me when I say, that there is a way to come back from it. You just need to want to do it. Conviction and strength of will, that's what it takes. By what I've seen, you possess both of those and you do want it. You will see that time heals everything, even the mistakes of the past"** Lena stood and listened to the person in front of her. She did not know what he had gone through, but she realized that he was talking from experience, the shadow on his face made that pretty clear. The unexpected words from a stranger reached her in a way that not even Kara could, strengthening her resolve to be a better person.

 **"Thank you for the kind words, Detective Allen"** she smiled at him wiping a tear off her face.

 **"Don't give me that, If you told me to call you Lena, then you call me Barry. No discussions"** he replied turning and giving the woman one of his goofy grins. Kara came back up seeing Lena look at Barry with interest. She almost immediately felt a shadow of jealousy, but stifled it soon after realizing that she had nothing to worry about. Barry loved her and that was the end of that.

 **"The room was scrubbed, someone was being very careful not to leave evidence behind. But I did find this"** She showed them a rather large WIFI repeater that was placed in a corner. **"This is how they managed to breach the internal network from the outside. This has an effective range of about 50 meters, more than enough for someone to sit in the park outside and hack his way in"**

 **"This is not something you can find at any corner store"** Lena looked at the device. She had seen it before somewhere in the L Corp plans. It was supposed to be a high power high accuracy device that would be able to clone the network it was attached to. **"This is something that we manufacture. Again. For the military"** She made a grimace.

 **"This is looking more and more like separate problems. We will put an APB out on Leslie, but even if we do capture her, the chances that the chip will still be in her possession are minimal. However we do need to go back to the lab and see whose prints these are and we can go from there"** Kara smiled.

 **"I don't care about the prototypes or the money to be honest. We can always build more, but I do want to know who stole them and I want them caught. Even if it means not getting my items back"** Lena said with a stern look on her face.

 **"We will try to do both. What we do manage to do however depends on how much we can find out by the evidence they left behind, which in this case doesn't seem to be much" Barry smiled putting the security footage and the logs on a flash drive "Mind if I take these? I want to see if we can get any more out of them"**

 **"I don't mind, but be sure that they don't get out. I would hate to have to sue the police for mishandling private secure information"** She grinned and then gave a chuckle.

 **"Your data's safe with us"** Kara replied making Barry laugh. **"We'll get back to you as soon as we have something"**

 **"You have my number. Use my private line or come straight here. My assistant has orders to let you in doesn't matter if I'm busy or not"** Lena replied **"Thank you for trying to help. I asked for you two in particular, because I knew that you could keep a secret. Well at least I knew Kara could. It would have been a bad blow to the credibility of the new L Corp if we had something stolen from under our noses"**

 **"I can as well. Have a good day, Lena. Kara will call you if we have something"** Barry replied as he head out the door.

 **"Kara, make sure to give him my number"** she said winking **"and if there ever comes a time where you no longer want to be his, I wouldn't mind having a crack at him"**

 **"Oh, I wouldn't hold my breath, Lena. He's mine and I don't intend to let him go"** Kara blushed but her voice was stern

 **"Good. Don't. He's quite something that Detective Allen of yours"** She smiled waving goodbye as she head toward the other elevators.

 **"You are right. He's quite something"** Kara told herself as she was going down to meet with Barry, which was at this point waiting for her in front of the building.

 **"This was … pretty interesting"** Barry spoke as the two headed back to the NCPD.

 **"What do you mean?"** she asked

 **"The other Lena I met was nothing like this one. She was indeed very interesting, a good conversationalist, smart and ruthless with her adversaries. However, as we both found out later, we didn't see the whole part of the picture"** Barry told the blonde that was getting more and more interested by the minute by what he had to say

 **"Spill it out, Barry Allen"** she urged him to continue

 **"I don't know what happened to her, but after a while she became really dark and dreary. At the end, before anything happened, she tried to resurrect Lex by cloning him. But she didn't really knew what kind of psychopath he was. While she knew him as a good kindhearted soul that had always been there for her as her brother, the clone was nothing like that. He was a sociopath and with the accelerated aging he came to maturity in only a few months. Then, one night, when she was asleep, he killed her"** Barry told the blonde which gasped

 **"Didn't he go to Jail or something?"** She asked.

 **"He technically didn't exist. He only came into the public spotlight after Lena was killed and assumed the identity of her child. He fabricated some evidence that they were mother and son and basically re inherited his own company from the person he killed. That was pretty screwed up even by my standards"** He explained. **"Remember, that is my timeline we are talking about, that doesn't mean this will happen here. But, you`re her friend, you should keep an eye on her personality, or maybe we both should. If she ever turns dark and dreary we should start to worry"**

 **"Ok. Thank you for sharing. That was a pretty bad end she had back in your time. I like Lena, she seems hell bent on proving she isn't her brother. Maybe, who knows, now she won't be. Not after that speech you gave her"** Kara grinned.

 **"I thought you might be listening in. I knew that you could even through all those walls, but I didn't actually think you would"** Barry looked at her with a surprised face.

 **"What? I'm leaving my boyfriend with a billionaire friend that's smart and beautiful and you don't think I'm going to keep an ear on him?"** Kara grinned but started to chuckle right after.

 **"Oh ye of little faith"** Barry paraphrased and then whispered **"there's only one woman that I have eyes for. A dorky blonde that wears tights in her off time and flies across the city saving people"** He took her hand in his while they were both walking.

 **"Good. That's what I wanted to hear"** Kara started to laugh kissing him on the cheek **"You`re mine and nobody else's"**

 **"And I wouldn't have it any other way. Because I get you. Don't think there's a better deal out there"** Barry replied. The two stepped up the pace to get back to the NCPD. They had enough to cover, the prints, the data and the device that apparently came from the same company that was now hacked into. That seemed a bit strange for both of them. The repeater was obviously built for the military, they hopes that with the DEO connections they could get a location where it was shipped and maybe a name of the person that ordered it. It was, of course, a longshot, but at this point they had nothing to lose.


	21. Reveal

A few days passed since the theft at L Corp. The two did go to the DEO when, as usual the prints that they got off the theft scene didn't really ring any bells in their own systems, which was something that didn't surprise them at all. Those fingerprints turned out to belong to two of the other people that were supposedly dead, from the mission in Syria. The system that was put in play seemed to be working but for now where were no new threats that were put into the system. Hank suggested that they put the commander and the person that they were followed by and added as a yellow threat. The two agreed to that and sent the data back to CatCo to be put in the next day's paper with Cats help. In that same time the two people that the couple captured J'onn tried to interrogate, but he didn't manage to get anything out of them because by the time they wanted to do that they found the two prisoners dead. They had suicide pills somewhere in their clothes.

There was another problem, the two did not have any sort of identifying marks. Their fingerprints were completely scrambled so they could not get anything out of that. The dental records were not something that they had access to which already meant that the DEO was not privy to that information. The DNA registry database didn't really register them, which was normal because it only held the living. If the person was declared dead then the DNA profile would be purged the next day. So even with those two, they still had nothing. Barry was getting annoyed, Kara could see that but managed to calm him down with a soft kiss. Alex chuckled and the Martian just scoffed. The rest already knew that they were together and their alter egos were together as well so it came as not so much of a surprise.

Two days later the couple and Cat were in the restaurant on the usual lunch date. They had begun meeting on a regular basis to talk and to see how they could make the system that they designed work better. Cat was a pretty practical woman and the two had enough knowledge to make most of her ideas and their work with what they had already implemented. That day the restaurant was empty except for the three. Cat was annoyed from something that happened at CatCo so she just rented the whole place for their meeting.

 **"Finally some peace and quiet"** She grumbled

 **"What's the matter? Tough day?"** Barry asked looking at the woman who looked visibly stressed.

 **"You could say that. Almost every paper in the country now wants to know how I managed to get the police to cooperate to publish what I do. Their requests for meetings and discussions are getting on my nerves. Yesterday, beside the hour I spent in putting the wanted list together, it was all meetings. The day before, same thing. I told Ms. Tessmacher to cancel everything for today"** Cat told them

 **"That must be … pretty bad. Well you could see the bright side of things I guess. You`re even more famous now then you were before"** Barry chuckled. The media mogul looked at him and calmed down slightly

 **"Publicity is always welcomed. That's what I have learned when it comes to media. So if I would search for the silver lining, then that would be it, you are correct"** she replied.

 **"Everything is going fine, we even got a few sightings of the spooks that we put in the wanted list. Maybe it will help us catch them"** Kara told her friend.

 **"I'm glad. I feel like I'm actually helping, which I don't think I have felt in a long time. It feels good"** she suddenly calmed down and smiled. **"But, isn't putting those people on the wanted list a bit, risky?"**

 **"Of course it's risky. But without a little risk there would be no reward. Besides, they did try to bug our apartment and kidnap one of us so ... we kind of want to catch them as fast as we can."** Kara replied.

 **"Did they actually break into your apartment? I thought they only tried"** Cat looked at the two who nodded.

 **"They actually did. We were awake at the time and managed to capture them. We didn't bring them to the police however. The DEO wanted to question them in relation to one of their secret cases, so we took them there. The problem was they were spooks. Just like the one that was following us the other day"** Barry replied.

 **"Most of them carry weaponry made from the element that can kill Supergirl and Superman. Of course, those weapons would kill any normal human, but they made sure that the girl of steel wouldn't be in the way either"** Kara added

As they ate the silence was suddenly broken by a couple of men who entered the restaurant without being invited. They were dressed in black coats and had weapons with them. The staff tried to keep them out, but couldn't. They fired directly at the spot where the three were hiding causing the staff to run out in a panic. Barry managed to jump in front of Kara just in time to take two bullets, but another two got had already reached their target hitting her twice in the back and a third, which Barry managed to change its direction just in time from not going straight through the head, created a large gash in Cat's left arm. The blonde fell down and the front of her shirt started to go red from the blood. Barry was stunned and not better off, he could feel the blood running down his chest, the world suddenly came to a standstill. It was something that had never happened to him, his speed did allow him to move as the world was slowed down, but nothing like now.

Everything was blocked in its tracks, the bullets were stopped as well, it was like the power he had had literally stopped time itself. He looked at Kara, noticing that the bullets that were flying through the air were Kryptonite. In seeing the person he loved on the ground, something in him snapped. As the world restarted to move, the speedster started to vibrate, his eyes went black and he stood up. Cat saw him turn from Barry Allen to a bad reception TV blur which gave off lightning in a split second, the two bullets that hit him simply fell through him and hit the ground. The waves of orange lightning that were coming off him were enormous, hitting in every direction. The blur started to walk toward the people that by now were trying to reload their guns. Barry's anger was so great that suddenly he didn't feel pain, he didn't feel anguish or fear, he simply wanted to kill all of them. Blink them out of existence. The people began to shoot again, however, the bullets that reached him simply turning in the air in front of him and literally going back toward his attackers. Barry in the extended time scape that his powers gave him all he had to do is wait for the bullets to come to him, simply reversing the path that they were on sending them back at the people attacking them, this was done so fast that from Cat's point of view it looked like he had an invisible shield in front of him, at a certain range the bullets would simply return to where they came, like they were repelled.

The first one that was in his reach, he touched and the person turned into a blur himself and simply vanished after no more than two seconds. Barry was not kidding around, seeing Kara on the floor bleeding had such an effect that for the first time in a long time, Menace was back and with a vengeance. Barry had sworn to himself never to lose Kara again, the promise that he silently made returned in the form of bitter and swift revenge on the puny humans that tried to kill the woman that he loved with all his heart. He didn't even think now to slice and dice them, the fact that he could simply turn them into nothing was more handy, no blood, no mess, no fuss. This was what he wanted. Let them vanish into the unknown that the maggots came from. As the bullets continued to come and be returned they started to hit the other ones that were covering behind the chairs and counters. The second person didn't have much more luck, the moment that Barry touched him and he started to vibrate, his cells lost cohesion and he went up in a puff of smoke. In a fraction of a second the speedster had pinned the third person that had initially shot the woman he loved to the wall, but instead of vibrating his whole body, he killed him with a vibrating hand straight through his head, then disposed of the body the same way as he had done with the other two people. The last two were not injured, Barry expertly playing with the trajectories so that they both could be spared, but also so they could feel helpless. They stopped firing and looked at the figure that was heading toward them, but they could not run. The terror on their faces was obvious when they saw the speedster knelt and put his hands on their bodies. They were awaiting death, but instead they were both rewarded with a punch that knocked them out. He had killed the persons that had initially busted in and saw him start to vibrate, these two however didn't see anything, so they could be taken as prisoners.

Cat was in the background for the whole thing watching as the speedster was taking off the enemies one by one. With a little presence of spirit she was at Kara's side and looked for a pulse. She did find one but weak and faint and fading fast. After a few minutes she could not find a pulse at all. Barry was taking care of the hail of bullets, nothing managed to get to her so she started to give Kara CPR, but nothing that she tried worked. The blouse she was wearing was filling up with blood as she kept trying to wake her up. Her first instinct was to ask Barry about why he had been lying to her about being the Flash, but when she realized that he was who she thought he was then realized who Kara's secret persona is. She had never seen the speedster as mad as he was now, he always was the type of person that had a goofy grin on his face and jokes and smiled, so while he took care of the people that were shooting she tried to keep her friend alive. Both of her friends, Kara Danvers and Supergirl. Cat started to panic, the time that Kara had been without a pulse was too long.

 **"Barry, need some help over here, she isn't breathing!"** she yelled from the other side of the room. The speedster was there in an instant, to her eyes he looked like he was teleporting. The speed with which Barry was at the side of his girlfriend was something that she could not process. Her face however fell in terror when she saw his face with his eyes completely black, like a demon had taken over his body and vibrating.

 **"She was shot with Kryptonite bullets. Damn them all to hell. I am going to kill ever last one of them and whoever damn general and politician they answer to"** Barry shouted showing Cat one of the bullets that he had caught out of the air.

 **"Can you do anything for her?"** Cat asked didn't really caring about what she had just witnessed, she was worried sick about Kara

 **"Yes. Step aside. I'll have to get the bullet out of her body, it's poisoning her and not allowing her to heal"** Barry answered and Cat stood by amazed as his hand phased through Kara's chest and removed the thing that was hurting her. The second bullet had the same fate. Barry phased all the bullets out of existence in front of Cat's face. He then stood up and both his hands started vibrating gathering enormous amounts of energy, to the media mogul he looked like Thor with both hands filled with lightning bolts. Not only in holding them but how they flowed to the ground, to her it looked like liquid lightning was coming out of his palms. He touched Kara and the energy in them shocked her back to a steady heart rhythm. The power he had put in the bolts was way more than he had ever tried, but he hoped that it would recharge her cells and she would start to heal. Barry fell to his knees, the wounds he had received were taking their toll on his body, the front of his shirt was already red and there was a dark streak that went down on one of the pant legs, sign that the blood had gone farther down.

 **"She has a pulse, but by the trajectory of those bullets that I pulled out of her, I'm afraid her heart might have been hit"** Barry looked at Cat. He took a split second decision. Vibrating to the best of his powers he put his hands on her body and started the same thing he did with Alex. It was way more difficult to do with her physiology, but Barry didn't want to lose her. He was right, one bullet had grazed the heart and one went straight through her lung. As he worked the amount of lightning that was coming off the two of them started to diminish. Barry stopped, he wasn't able to do more if he didn't want to crash.

 **"What did you do?"** Cat asked with wide eyes, seeing him panting like he had ran two marathons and a 100 mile hike.

 **"It's one of the skills I have acquired over many years. I rearranged her cells to close the wound in her heart and regenerated the other place that was bleeding. Her body structure is very dense which means only doing that without anything else took almost all the energy I had"** Barry explained. **"I barely have enough to run her to the DEO, I will probably crash soon after. I can feel how exhausted I am and the holes that I have in my gut aren't doing me any favors. I used all the power I had to heal her, I disregarded my own wounds. She is much more important, her life, her light, they must be saved"** He told Cat, his eyes returning to normal. She felt a little better when that happened, the image of him from before was something out of a nightmare book **"Are you all right?"** he pointed to the large superficial gash on her arm where the bullet grazed her. Cat was flabbergasted at the care the person in front of her exhibited. He was shot, barely standing and bleeding profusely. His girlfriend was on the ground with her clothes full of blood and he still found the time to ask her about her health.

 **"I'm fine. Compared to her and you this is chump change. You look like you`re about to collapse yourself"** Cat told Barry. The speedster picked up the phone

 **"Alex, this is Barry. Send a team to the restaurant in front of CatCo Asap. There are two people that need to be detained. Check them for cyanide capsules and explosives, the works. I do not want them to kill themselves before I have a word with them"** He told her in an authoritative tone

 **"What happened?"** Alex's heart skipped a beat when hearing him

 **"They tried to kill us. Kara has been shot but I managed to stabilize her. I took two bullets myself, Cat Grant took one too. I'm bringing them both to the DEO. Put Kara in a sunbed the moment I arrive"** He told her

 **"Why Cat Grant?"** She sked with a surprised voice

 **"Alex, enough with the questions, we have no time for that. She helped me save Kara's life and she knows who we are. I have two holes in my gut and Kara is unconscious. We're coming and that's final"** Barry replied, the tone in his voice told Alex that it was something very urgent as well as conveying the worry he felt about the blonde's life. He closed the phone and grabbed Kara as best he could and Cat and flashed them to the DEO. He barely managed to stop short of the med bay and leave both of the two injured women, his legs left him, his powers died and not being unable to stop completely he skidded into a wall looking like a ragdoll with blood pouring out of his suit. The Martian picked up Kara and put her in her sunbed, Alex going over to the ragdoll that was Barry Allen.

 **"Hank, need some help over there, he stopped breathing!"** Alex yelled. The large man went over running and got him up on the surgical bed. Alex cut his clothes and was livid at the damage, the Flash had two large wounds, one in his gut and one in the chest, very close to his heart, the amount of blood that came out of that wound was massive, she was asking herself how did he even have the strength to carry the two all the way to the DEO with the damage that he had taken from the bullets.

 **"Damn. Call the doctor, we need to get him to surgery ASAP"** The DEO agent yelled

 **"Isn't he supposed to heal?"** Hank asked.

 **"I don't know why, but he isn't healing"** Alex yelled and Winn ran to get the Doctor. She managed to stop the bleeding from one of the wounds temporarily, but the one close to his heart was continuing to bleed out. She was getting really worried about the speedster.

 **"The bullets that hit Kara grazed her heart. He used something on her to fix her wounds. Something about regeneration. He made a conscious decision to not use it on himself and save her"** Cat told Alex **"If he hadn't done that, Kara would have been dead right now"** while her voice was calm and collected she realized that her eyes started to water, she had no idea why, but seeing her friends, that were also the heroes that protected this city, on those tables made her feel like she should be crying her heart out.

 **"Shit. He must have employed the technique he used on me. That's why he isn't healing. He consumed all his energy on making sure that Kara didn't die. Of all the irresponsible …"** Alex was moving around him and Winn came back with the doctor that was already fully suited. She went and scrubbed herself, she did have some field medic expertise and she wanted to make sure Barry would get out of this alive.

 **"Is there a first aid kit somewhere around here?"** Cat asked.

 **"Here"** Winn gave her one **"Why?"** the media mogul tore the sleeve of her blouse and the techie could see the wound that she had on her arm. **"Oh, you were shot too, Ms. Grant?"** Winn defaulted to how he was used to call her. She nodded and proceeded to wrap her wound with some gauze as hard as she could. Winn helped, the only people with medical experience were trying to save Barry's life.

 **"Thank you for the help Winn. But I'm going to be fine. It's them I'm worried about"** she pointed at the medical bay **"They are far worse than I am"**

After about 30 minutes the men that were captured were brought in and Kara had woken up. Her injuries almost completely healed due to the fact that Barry used a lot of power to recharge her. The sun bed was just there to keep her power level stable at this point. Nothing had prepared her for what she saw next. In the medical bay, the doctor from the DEO and Alex were working tirelessly. On the table, there was Barry Allen with his chest opened and blood coming out. Kara was frozen. She tried to get into the operating room, but Alex waved her off. She sat near Cat almost crying.

 **"What did he do?"** she asked the media mogul

 **"Your heart was grazed. You two vibrated for a minute and he said you were fixed. Something about regenerating your cells and patching up your wounds. That's all I know"** Cat responded. Kara looked up and saw the large trail of blood and the splash on the wall where Barry had fallen after he blacked out.

 **"Rao damn him. He healed me and he didn't have enough power to do it for himself. I swear the guys that did this to him are going to beg me to kill them after I get my hands on them"** Kara uttered. Cat was scared, she had seen that look in her eyes once before. During the red K incident, when Supergirl threw her off the balcony. The anger was there and it was real. Cute sunny bubbly shy Kara Danvers had suddenly disappeared, leaving place for something that chilled Cat to the bone, her dark look and the way she talked left no place for maybes. She wanted to kill them, slowly and painfully.

 **"He said you were more important than his own life. I had no idea that is how he regarded you. I knew he was in love, but I apparently had no idea just how much"** Cat managed to say to the blonde that even with her anger was at the verge of tears.

 **"I know. That's how I regard him as well. I would give my life for him in a heartbeat. You must have a lot of questions huh?"** Kara asked the media mogul

 **"Not that many, I used to think you were Supergirl and he was the Flash. Then I both seen you talk to each other and that thought disappeared, but only for a while. After you told me that you were together and the heroes were together as well, it kind of clicked. But I didn't say anything, if you would have wanted to trust me with your secret then you would have on your own time. Besides, I have always had your back since then when the media was concerned"** Cat smiled.

 **"I see. Thank you for that. As for this, now you know"** Before she finished her sentence the monitors in the medical bay started to beep again. She was up in an instant going to see what was happening. Cat was surprised at first and then reminded herself who it was that she actually was talking to.

 **"The men that were caught at the scene have been searched for any suicide methods. They will be waking up soon. They're clean"** Winn told them

 **"How many of them?"** Kara asked with a dark glance.

 **"Two. That's how many there were in the restaurant"** the reply came.

 **"How many attacked us, Cat? Did any of them escape?"** Kara asked turning at the media mogul.

 **"There were 5 in total. Two of them that are here and the other three … Barry made them disappear. None of them escaped, to be honest I was surprised he left those two … alive"** Cat replied.

 **"What do you mean, disappear?"** Kara asked surprised.

 **"When he saw you down, his eyes turned black and turned into a blur. Something resembling bad reception. The moment he touched the men, they started to become like him and then they simply vanished. It looked like they went out in poofs of smoke. It was like a demon had been awaken, Black eyes, cold voice and a deadly smile on his face. After he was finished with them, these two didn't manage to fire, so he knocked them out. I am seriously going to see that face in my dreams for a few weeks. I had no idea Barry could become something as horrific as that. Ever since I've met him he was always the goofy man with a smile on his face, not what I saw in that restaurant"** Cat told her truthfully.

 **"He phased them out of existence. He was kind, even in his biggest moment of anger, and offered them a quick death, I would have burned their arms and legs off and played a little soccer with the rest of them until they told me who sent them"** Kara replied to Cat in a tone that was frightening to her. She had never heard the blonde talk like that, with such a dark dreary tone, with so much anger in her voice and pain. She touched her necklace and suddenly Supergirl was standing in front of her. Kara left her clothes and weapons in a locker.

 **"Winn, which cells are those two kept and have they woken up?"** Kara asked.

 **"Yes, they have"** He responded. Kara looked at herself and muttered

 **"No, this is not what I need to wear"** She sped back to one of her lockers that were already in the DEO. It held the red K outfit that she had worn back when she had gone crazy. Alex wanted to throw it away, but she told her to leave it there so that she could remember what she never wanted to be. She put her Supergirl outfit back in the necklace and put on the other one. **"This is better"** Cat almost had a stroke when she came back. She did not like seeing Kara wear that outfit. **"Time to go play "how many body parts to I have to cut before you tell me what I want to know". Let's hope the guys know the game as well, I am not in the mood to explain the rules to them at this time"** Cat looked at her hoping she would be joking, but she was deadly serious, her eyes said the whole story and more. She sped down to the cells. Winn and Hank were watching through the monitors. They knew that there was nothing they could do to stop Kara and they didn't want to either. Barry was a friend to both of them, even if the Martian didn't want to admit it, he had grown fond of the speedster. Cat came to watch, even if something in the deepest recesses of her mind told her not to. Kara entered the first cell, the man freezing when he saw her.

 **"I am going to be polite and ask you once, nicely, who do you work for? Do answer if you know what's good for you"** Kara told him with a dark gleam in her eyes. The man didn't even budge, but you could see the way he was shivering. Kara's demeanor and attitude had him scared shitless. **"Have it your way then"** She sped across the cell and with one hand grabbed him by the neck holding him against the wall. **"Do you know what happens when you use a laser beam to cut a limb?"** she asked with a dark grin on her face **"The wound cauterizes, the host body loses no blood and it can be done indefinitely and on all limbs until the person has nothing left to have cut off. I wonder how many slices I have to cut off until you tell me what I want to know"** Her eyes went completely red and beams of light started to creep up on the man's left leg.

 **"We were right. You aliens are nothing but dangers to our society"** the man said with a blank face **"Kill me, you will only prove everyone that we're right"** Kara stopped and punched the wall so hard next to his head that a crater formed from the impact.

 **"Tell me, assassin, what would you do to me if I was to go now and try to kill your wife and child?"** Kara asked.

 **"I would come after you and kill you without question"** the man responded with a steel resolve.

 **"You have hurt someone I love dearly. We might be aliens, but when it's about the people we love, we are only human. Tell me what I want to know, or you will know pain the likes you have never felt before. Do not regard me as an alien, I am a simple girl that is on the brink of losing someone she loves with all her heart and soul. I hope that makes you understand a little better the dire predicament you are in right now. Do not test my patience, or you will live to see yourself with everything cut off and thrown in the street so that the dogs can get a healthy meal off of you. Did I make myself clear? Now, I will ask again. Who sent you to kill my friends?"** Kara told him with the face of a demon, her eyes lighting up.

 **"I cannot tell you. If I do then I'm dead. Which means I'm dead either way. Kill me and get this over with"** the man told her closing his eyes. A voice resonated in Kara's mind. Barry's voice. **_"I do not want Kara to kill anyone. She is the one that helps me keep my darkness away. Killing… changes you. I will kill if she asks it of me, just so that she doesn't have to. She is the light that keeps me out of the dark, if she falls, so do I"_** She depowered her eyes and clocked the man one in the chin, leaving him motionless on the floor. Everyone watching was baffled, they thought for sure that she would do everything that was needed to get the info out of him. Including and up to killing him.

She went to the second person and repeated the same routine, but that wouldn't budge either, it was like they were conditioned not to speak doesn't matter how badly they were threatened. Killing them would serve no purpose. Kara left and came back to the med bay returning to the Supergirl suit. She spoke with J`onn in the form of Hank

 **"Can I ask a favor of you?"**

 **"Yes, what can I do?"** He asked with a low tone in his voice.

 **"Steal their memories. Find out what they know. I don't care what you do but try to find out who wants us dead. I want those people either in jail or in the ground"** She replied. He knew what she was asking and he agreed. He left telling Winn to close the feeds to the cells.

 **"I was sure you were going to kill them"** Cat told her after she sat down in the chair. She managed to catch a glimpse of her face when she was in that room. It was something that she had never seen and never wanted to see come from Kara as long as she lived.

 **"I was too. I wanted to make them suffer so bad that they either tell me what they know or they beg me to kill them. Something Barry had said made his voice come back to me. I stopped because of what I remembered"** Kara said looking at Cat

 **"You love him that much that you would kill for him?"** the media mogul asked surprised.

 **"Kill for him and die for him. I love him with all my heart. He is the person that showed me what it means for me to be loved back with the same intensity as you put in"** Kara looked at the bracelet she had on her hand and started to cry. Cat had a vague idea of how much Kara loved Barry, but not a complete picture. She had it now, Supergirl would step over everything she believed in for the one she loved. The doctor and Alex came out of the medical bay both plopping outside the door. Nearly two hours had passed since Barry came with them to the DEO.

 **"How is he? Is he going to make it?"** Kara instantly asked.

 **"We managed to stabilize him. Patched up his blood vessels, stitched him up as best we could. We reset all the bones that we could find broken and gave him a few blood transfusions. I'm surprised that he didn't die. Boy did he have a few bones shattered. Now it's all up to him. We already have him on Glucose drips. Hopefully if he gets his energy back his body will begin speed healing itself"** Alex told the blonde which jumped her and the doctor and took them into a big hug

 **"Thank you for saving him"** She said with a large smile even if her eyes were still teary.

 **"I owed him big time. I wouldn't be alive right now if it wasn't for him, you already know that, Kara"** Alex replied

 **"Just doing my job, but you are welcome"** the doctor gave her a large smile seeing her happy

 **"One of you mind taking a look at Cat too? She took a bullet, even if it's a superficial one she might need some stitches"** Kara asked them. Alex got up

 **"You rest, doc. I can stitch just fine. Come with me, Ms. Grant"** She motioned to Cat as they both went to another room so that Alex could treat her wound properly and bandage her. Kara went straight to the surgical bay. She got herself a chair and sat near Barry holding his hand. Waiting for him to wake up. They all tried her to get her to rest, but she wouldn't have any of it. In the end they gave up, Winn going out to get lots of food and Cat and Alex sitting with her waiting for the speedster to wake up. With the nutrients that were being put into his body, the wounds that he had started to heal at an accelerated rate. Cat was baffled by the fact that Alex had to pull out the stitches they used barely an hour after they had finished. She could not let him in because of the high rate of healing. After he came back, Winn called Chief Singer to tell him that the two CSI's had been sent on a priority mission out of the city, something about some metahuman terrorist and they should be back in a couple of days. It took almost 7 hours for the speedster to finally wake up. He opened his eyes and wouldn't you know it, he cracked a joke

 **"Why are you looking at me like that, did Kara put makeup on me while I was out?"** He chuckled. The blonde didn't even wait, careful about her strength she hugged him and gave him a long soft kiss. Alex looked the other way and Cat was smirking heavily

 **"You dummy. Didn't you say we don't play the hero unless absolutely necessary? You almost died"** She yelled at him through her tears of joy

 **"You did die, Kara. Cat can tell you that. You were motionless on the floor with no breath and no pulse. You had a wound on your heart and you were bleeding out. I qualify that as "absolutely necessary", wouldn't you?"** He gave her a weak smile. Kara turned at the media mogul who nodded, acknowledging what the speedster had just said.

 **"Thank you for saving my life"** she told him

 **"And mine"** Cat added, making Barry look crooked at her **"What? You think I don't know bullets don't change paths in mid-flight? The one that superficially grazed me was probably going to hit me somewhere in the chest or the head"** She smiled.

 **"How would I not save the lives of the woman that I love most on this planet and someone who I regard as a friend. Don't mention it"** His stomach started to grumble, making Kara laugh **"I seem to be hungry though"**

 **"Yep, he's back"** Alex hugged him as well **"Welcome back, now don't you do that ever again or I'm going to kill you myself"** She told him with a semiserious voice.

 **"Yes mam. I'm going to try. No promises though, the only promises I make are to this beautiful blonde over here"** Barry pointed at Kara who was holding his hand.

 **"Food is served"** Winn commented. Kara helped the speedster out of the bed. It was amazing how he didn't have any trouble walking considering a few hours before he was on the surgical bed with his chest split open. Alex went to seek out Hank. Winn returned to his business. Kara, Cat and Barry went to the mess hall where there were 30 pizzas on a table. The speedster sat down and the blonde began speeding the food in front of him. Cat stood there and gawked at how fast he was eating.

 **"What? No questions from the person who would want to hear about the lives of the superheroes she's writing about?"** Barry chuckled as he ate looking at Cat.

 **"I told Kara earlier, I had my suspicions and the being in two places at once did quell them, but you two being together and the supers dating, that was a bit too much of a coincidence. I don't understand why you decided to tell me now. You could have just let that bullet hit me and while I was out you could have taken Kara back here. That would have avoided everything and I would still be none the wiser"** Cat replied.

 **"That is true. But, as you`ve seen I wasn't quite myself"** the speedster replied **"Sorry if that face is going to be a nightmare for a few weeks, but seeing Kara down and bloody like that, let's just say I wasn't thinking right at the time"**

 **"That maybe it but …"** she got cut off

 **"I could have asked someone to alter your memories too. To make you forget. But I looked at how you acted. You realized I was the Flash, but instead of turning on full reporter mode and starting to ask stupid questions that would only waste time and maybe lives, you went and started to give Kara CPR, made sure that she was breathing and when she wasn't called out for me. I do believe that is still her blood on your shirt"** Barry pointed at the large blotch of red

 **"We will need that, I would rather my blood doesn't fall into the wrong hands"** Kara replied and Cat agreed.

 **"That is why I didn't act. You stopped being a reporter and someone who chases a story and became someone who just wanted to keep a friend alive. You completely disregarded your usual needs and wants to make sure Kara was safe. That showed me that we could trust you with this. Words don't do much for me, actions however speak volumes, Cat"** Barry smiled while finishing another pizza

 **"To be fair, there wasn't just one friend for me on that floor. There were two. Kara and Supergirl. As much as I like to pull her pigtails and not appreciate her throwing me off a balcony, I came to regard her as a friend. Some of the talks we had were enlightening for me as well as for you"** The media mogul looked at Kara which was smiling

 **"Now you know that they are the same. One friend to rule them all"** Kara made a joke and Barry scoffed.

 **"So what am I? Chopped liver?"** he made a pouty face that made the blonde chuckle.

 **"You still have to tell me how you managed to pull that stunt with being in two places at once. Both of you, I didn't know that you had powers that would permit you to clone yourselves"** Cat told them rather stupefied.

 **"The other Kara was actually a friend of mine who can shapeshift. Barry, does however possess the skill to make doubles of himself at will. It has something to do with his powers"** Kara replied

 **"You two live a strange life, don't you?"** Cat looked at the couple that was happily munching on pizzas.

 **"You have no idea. Considering she's an alien and I'm a speedster from another universe"** Barry told her making her jaw fall **"Oh, I guess you didn't know that. In a short sentence, parallel universes are real, this universe is not my original one. It's a lot to take in, so it's best that you don't try to understand it all at once"**

 **"We should probably mention that we have friends from other universes as well. Speedsters like Barry and other heroes in their own right. That universe has many more of them then we do"** Kara added.

 **"Speedsters, so you mean the two that helped you back then with Leslie and Siobhan?"** Cat remembered that there were two that time not just one.

 **"Yes, those are from the universe that Barry is originally from. That Flash is still Barry, but 8 years younger and the other one is his wife, Frost"** Kara tried to explain

 **"This is way out there. Maybe this is a discussion left for another time. Whatever it is, I'm really glad that you two are all right"** Cat smiled at the couple.

 **"Glad I was in time to change that trajectory for the bullet that grazed you. If I wasn't there might not have been a Cat Grant now"** Barry replied.

 **"It just dawned on me. If you`re Supergirl, does that mean Superman is …"** she got cut off.

 **"People don't know his identity at the DEO and we'd like to keep it that way. While here refer to him as Kal or Superman. But if you were going to say is what I suspect then yes, you would be totally correct"** Kara replied **"I don't think I need to stress that nobody is to find out that"**

 **"Of course you don't. Great, I drunk texted Superman with explicit language"** Cat almost face palmed.

 **"He actually found it funny that you would do that of all things. The cool, conceited, always in control, media millionaire, drunk texting his alter ego. It was a part of you he didn't know you had"** Kara laughed making Cat sigh and roll her eyes, but still crack a grin at the end.

 **"That's never going to happen again. Anyway can I get a fresh shirt since this one has your blood on it? I do need to get home at one point, while to be fair, I do enjoy your company"** she asked. Kara sped and brought her one of the shirts she kept around for emergencies. Cat left to change and came back with the bloody blouse and handed it to Barry which phased it into nothingness. His strength had come back since he finished eating.

 **"Come on. I'll take you home. It's late and your driver should not be made aware of where the DEO actually is"** Barry stood up

 **"All right. Good bye Kara. I'll be seeing you both around, for our usual lunch meetings about threats"** She replied looking at the blonde

 **"Now if you need an exclusive from Supergirl or Flash you know who to ask and this time, directly"** the alien replied with a smirk. Barry took Cat and was gone. He came back a few minutes later

 **"Getting slow, scarlet speedster?"** Kara grinned at him.

 **"No. Just taking it slow. I didn't want to race at full speed in case I'm not completely healed. I did promise I would take care of myself, remember?"** he smiled

 **"Good, I thought you forgot about that one little thing"** the alien smirked getting off the chair.

 **"I don't forget the promises I've made to you and will always try to keep them as much as humanly possible"** Barry took her in his arms and kissed her gently holding her in his arms. He was so happy to have her back, he was almost crying. Kara saw that and held him tight as they kissed feeling his heart quickening. As they separated, the blonde alien smirked.

 **"I love you, Barry"**

 **"I love you, Kara"**


	22. Bugs

In the aftermath of the shooting at the restaurant, the NCPD was alerted that there was an organization that might be targeting Flash and Supergirl. The suspects were already put on the watch list, but this time the rest of the detectives were in on it as well. However the police did not know that the persons that the attempt was made for were the three that had been talking in that restaurant. J`onn had done what Kara asked. He probed the minds of the people that tried to kill them telepathically also leaving them as bumbling messes that didn't even know their name. He had shared with the two heroes what he had found. The military organization that they were part of was a covert rogue branch of the government with General Lane at its command. They were partners with something that Lane called Project CADMUS. Something that was indeed headed by Lilian Luthor. The Martian seeing the person very clearly in their memories as someone who had discussions with Lane on a daily basis. They also found out that the cell had no idea who Supergirl was, but since bullets were bullets, it made no issue if they contained Kryptonite or not. They would still kill a normal human and in case they got lucky and Supergirl's ego was shot then she would die as well.

Hank imparted to them that the reason that they have been followed. The cell had their eyes on them for a while simply because they could call or talk to the two superheroes when they needed. It was something that Barry already figured out, but without some sort of proof to back that claim up it was left as a theory. Until now at least. The two offered the people that were still alive for the shooting, as mentally damaged as they now where to the NCPD as the killers of the staff that was at the restaurant, which made Singer very happy that they had closed another case.

Over the course of the last few months Kara had continued to practice with Barry and honing her hand to hand combat skills. With constant training and discipline her responses became almost reflexive in nature but the control of her power was the linchpin. Kara had gone from actively controlling her strength to something more seamless, almost automatic. She didn't even think now to control them, it just happened naturally. This auto control was so engrained in her that while the training took place and as it progressed, Barry had never needed to vibrate when she hit him playfully. The power was dosed so perfectly that she could do almost anything she wanted and not be afraid that she could hurt anyone.

The speedster continued to train her and when she got the knack of it so well so that he didn't need to vibrate at all when they were fighting, she graduated to fighting two of them. This would be done because Barry wanted to see if she can dose her power against multiple people. She could at that, Barry's remnant was vibrating and hitting with full force as she was hitting him back and himself no vibrations were attacking her and getting the same power back as he put in. She was definitely ready. Then he imparted to her the knowledge of the other spots that if hit correctly could very well injure the person permanently or flat out kill them. After one more training session and even using those spots she had not hurt Barry one bit, of course the usual bruising was there, but being able to heal himself came in handy.

One day they had the surprise of being forced by Chief Singer to participate in a self-defense seminar which had a reputable trainer who was an expert. Barry and Kara politely refused only to be denied and told that they need to attend. The two were now in the training room with the other police staff while the instructor was teaching some of them the basics of martial arts style self-defense. Most of the detectives had street smarts and could take care of themselves and were pretty annoyed at Singer for forcing them to take part in something like that. But seeing him participate as well they had no choice but to accept.

 **"Is it just me or the moves he's making are leaving him open to multiple avenues of retaliation?"** Kara asked whispering

 **"Nope. It's not just you. I'm seeing the same thing. That is the thing, what you learned from me was initially thought up and built as a counter to all the karate styles out there. Made to exploit their weaknesses. That is why we can see them, because our training makes us notice them"** Barry replied in the same low voice.

 **"I didn't realize that's how that style was born. It does make sense though, if you encounter someone who is an expert martial artist, you need to know how to take them down to get to your mark"** She replied.

 **"No wonder, even in this world, if a professional assassin had one of these guys on their tails they would run and hide " Barry snickered. Their chat however drew the attention of the person that was in the center of the tatami teaching.**

 **"I see there are two people being disruptive in our training. Being quiet would be preferable unless you think you have nothing to learn. Which I don't think is the case"** He said with a stern voice making everyone turn their heads to the two that were standing somewhere away from the action. **"You, the blonde lady with the big mouth, why don't you come show us what you know"** He said with a condescending tone. Kara wasn't fazed by the demeanor. She had found out that since Barry took up training her, she was very capable in controlling her rage and emotions. She stood up, took off her jacket and handed the guns to Barry and proceeded to walk toward the middle where the man stood. Most of the detectives, except the ones that were at the attempt that was made on their lives at the press conference, hadn't seen her weapons before and some of them were shocked to see such a slender blonde have two cannons for side arms.

 **"All right. What am I supposed to do?"** she asked innocently

 **"I will attack you and you will defend"** the person asked getting into an attack stance. She didn't move, Barry had taught her that stances are useless if you can control the other person's movement through your own.

The man started to attack, punches and kicks full on. Kara had no problem whatsoever in dodging or simply blocking the punches he threw, a few times even countering to the sort that he was totally off balance and almost fell on his ass. It was surprising for the people watching that such a small framed person could literally stop one of the trainers punches dead on and with so little effort. He saw that and the next round of attack started to be fiercer and more directed, like the trainer was actually trying to hurt her. Too bad because nothing got through her guard, her stance was neutral and she blocked and dodged with ease the hits that were coming straight at her, while redirecting the punches that were going to the outside. You could see the man starting to pant, meanwhile Kara was completely focused but seemed bored, she even winked at Barry a few times just for the fun of it while blocking the hits that came her way. The detectives, including Singer were looking at the two fighting like watching a fight movie, Barry could read the immense surprise that befell them. The man motioned them to stop.

 **"You have impressive moves and control over your defense. Let's see how you fare on attack"** His condescending demeanor had stopped after seeing how well the blonde could take care of herself. The man took a defensive stance, but to his surprise he was back on his ass on the tatami in less than 10 seconds. The blonde smiled and extended him an arm. He tried again, the same result, even switching stances the one in front of him always managed to find open spots through his defenses. He figured out that even with all he knew, he could not find ways to defend from all the hits that were getting through his guard. Kara however was doing great, Barry was proud of her, she had proven that she could dose her strength to be able to fight with someone without powers effectively. He knew that after fighting her, the man would most probably be out for a couple of days. His eyes had followed the pattern of hits she had been delivering. She stopped joking around, after Barry blew her a kiss, and threw a 3 hit combo that had the man fall on the tatami face up panting heavily.

 **"Very impressive. I have not seen anyone use this style before. Who taught you how to fight?"** The man asked needing a bit of help to stand being severely fatigued.

 **"That man over there. My boyfriend and partner, Detective Allen"** She looked at him proudly

 **"Detective"** he asked sitting down to rest **"Mind if you show us a bit of sparring between you two? I need to take a breather"**

 **"Not at all. Shall we, Kara?"** he smiled taking off his jacket and guns and stepping up to his girlfriend.

 **"Let's do this. I was waiting for a challenge"** She answered with a grin. Singer could swear he heard somewhere in the background the Mortal Kombat song start as the two took their stances and began fighting. Kara fighting against the trainer was something, but with the two being evenly matched the sparring that took place was a sight to behold. Punches and kicks were flying all around each blocking, parrying, redirecting and dodging as they knew best, Kara got in some pretty good hits, Barry did the same, but most of their counters had been immediately shut down by a well placed guard. The trainer realized immediately that the blonde didn't even need to use her full skill to best him, which made him a bit ashamed for talking to her so condescendingly at the start. The detectives looked with admiration at the two that could fight like two demons, they respected the couple before, due to the fact that their completion and arrest record was one of the highest in the precinct, but somehow at least some of them regarded them as weak. Not anymore, after this power show the respect they had for their two colleagues had risen dramatically. The sparring had been going on for more than 30 minutes without any of the two getting the upper hand. They stopped and bowed.

 **"We could do this for another hour if we wanted to but, it would be a good idea that we don't tire each other out. There might be an emergency somewhere in the city" Barry joked with a smirk on his face**

 **"We didn't want to sound condescending, Chief Singer, but when we said we don't need to be in this course, we were kind of not kidding. Not that we don't respect our trainer, but because we already know how to defend ourselves pretty well, as you could see from our sparring"** Kara gave them all a sunny smile.

 **"Color me impressed. I had no clue that you two could fight so well. Yes, I admit it now, you two don't have to come to this course"** he raised his hands up in surrender.

 **"I still have to ask, where did you learn how to fight like that, Detective Allen?"** the trainer still had trouble standing up

 **"That I cannot say. What I can say that I have been following the pattern of Detective Danvers's hits. You will continue to feel fatigued for the next, 24- 48 hours. Until the bruising on your body heals"** Barry smiled. The trainer looked at them inquisitively and raised his shirt, only to find a few well-placed purple spots on his chest and stomach.

 **"I see. You could have done much more damage when you hit me. Am I correct in assuming that?"** he asked.

 **"Of course, to answer your question more accurately thought, I could have killed you in three hits. But we are cops, our aim isn't to kill but to bring people back alive so that justice can be served"** The blonde responded with a bright smile. Everyone's jaw fell at her blunt statement. Singer suddenly realized the lethality of the style that the couple were so proficient in. From that moment on the Chief looked at the two with different eyes and was thankful that he had the two as two as his detectives.

They bowed and put back their guns in their holsters and got their jackets and exited the training room, going back to their Lab. Barry had a large grin on his face.

 **"That's that for?"** She asked looking at his face.

 **"I'm proud of you, Kara. Do you realize what you`ve just done?"** the speedster asked her.

 **"Um, no?"** she looked at him quizzically **"What did I do? Did I screw up something?"**

 **"Quite the opposite. The trainer was human, Kara"** Barry relayed that simple fact to her allowing her to process what he was saying. Her eyes suddenly went wide

 **"I was fighting a human and I didn't kill him"**

 **"Precisely. The control you have gained now over your strength is amazing. You can fight humans now without being afraid to bash their heads in with a flick of a wrist " He smiled brightly**

 **"I didn't even realize. I was fighting him like I would have fought you and yet I didn't not kill him. This is beyond awesome"** She almost yelled.

 **"I suspect now that if you want to use your full power you'll have to concentrate your hits. It's the opposite as it was for you until now. You had to consciously control your power so that you wouldn't hurt anyone, but when you fought you were always going all out. Now, you control it without thinking, which means when you want to go all out all you have to do is focus"** Barry smiled at his beautiful girlfriend.

 **"You were always going for this when you were training me weren't you?"** Kara looked at him

 **"Of course. One of your biggest fears has always been that you would kill someone because you couldn't control yourself. Out of being angry or just slapping them without realizing. This way, with discipline and training, you will never do that again. If you want to kill someone or really hurt them, you will have to want that and focus your power to that goal, but in everyday life, the self-control that I have ingrained in you will keep you from harming anyone and you won't even know it"** the speedster smiled.

 **"Thank you. I didn't know you were doing that as well while training me. You have singlehandedly got rid of the largest fear I have ever had. I love you, Barry. Thank you" The blonde hugged him tightly realizing that even if she tried her strength was still normal. Barry didn't need to vibrate.**

 **"You are most welcome, beautiful. Glad I could help. I love you too"** he smiled back at her. Seeing her happy always made his day. As they got back to the lab they saw that there was one black spot on the tracker that they used in conjunction with the program from CatCo. Someone had sent a picture with a GPS tag, of someone the two knew pretty well. It was the human form of the Hellgrammite. Sadly the timestamp was pretty old, it came at the time the two were stuck in self-defense training. They decided it was a bit too late to try to go after the creature but a call from the DEO made them change their mind. Winn had in on the monitors, it was attacking a shipment of chemicals that was heading out of the city. They got into their suits and left via the usual open window.

 **"Winn, do you know what kind of chemicals that truck is carrying?"** Barry asked through his headphone

 **"That's the problem. I can't find any sort of manifest to that. It's like the shipment doesn't even exist. Just a truck with a logo"** Winn responded

 **"So, how did you come to the conclusion that it was a chemical truck? Did you turn into a psychic?"** Kara inquired with a chuckle

 **"Because of where it left and because of the logo ? I don't know. A truck leaving a chemical plant should be filled with chemicals. Sounds logical, doesn't it?"** The answer came holding a tone of self-doubt

 **"It does. But when it has no manifest then … it's going to be tricky to get him off the truck without breaking it"** Kara added.

 **"Well, no ... not really"** Barry sped ahead of the truck and threw a lightning bolt at the creature that was still in its human form. The large shock managed to stun the creature momentarily while it fell down to the ground, the truck however was going ahead. Kara tried to scan it with her vision but it was black. It was highly unusual for chemical transport trucks to have lead sidings, but she had another issue to take care of. The creature had started to run toward a line of trees that was part of a large forest. She had to stop it from escaping so, as usual she just flew down to the creature and when it hit her, she was surprised it was like she was weak. The amount of force the Hellgrammite was putting into pushing her out of her way was immense. She remembered what Barry told her, she had to focus now. She complied and the next punch sent the bug flying. It had now turned completely into its insect form and was running toward her yet again.

Barry took a running start and hit the insect full on turning it toward him. Its shell was tough and it seemed to withstand even Kara's full power punches. His hypersonic punch only helped in confusing the creature but not stopping it. It started to throw spikes at the two heroes. Kara had no issue in deflecting them but two of them hit Barry stopping him in his tracks.

 **"You ok ?"** she yelled as she continued to punch the large bug that was not fully stopped trying to catch the girl that was floating around it

 **"Yeah. Just painful. Nothing to be worry about"** he replied. The bug saw that the Flash was immobilized and threw another rain of spikes at him. Kara was in front of him in an instant shielding him with her own body. Her alien physiology stopping the large spines in their tracks.

 **"Be careful"** She smiled and ran back crashing into the bug at her full speed dazing it. Barry pulled the spines out of his leg and arm and started to vibrate to repair the damage. He stood up and his hands started to vibrate. Compounding his speed with his hands the Flash moved toward the bug, slashing two of his appendages in two swift strikes. The monster lost its footing just enough for Supergirl to clock him a full strength punch. The force of the punch erupted with a sonic boom enough to crack the shell of the creature in a spot around the impact site. Barry used the chance to send a concentrated bolt of lightning directly through the crack. Knocking the creature out.

 **"Should we put this guy back in the DEO lockup?"** Barry asked

 **"What else would we do with him?"** Kara looked at him with a quizzical look.

 **"I can always phase him into nothing, you know"** The speedster smiled.

 **"That's about the same as killing him. You know I've always been a supporter of non-lethal means"** the blonde smiled brightly.

 **"Ok, you take him to the DEO. I need to go see what's in that truck"** He responded.

 **"Why is that important?"** She asked with a surprised face.

 **"I have a bad feeling about it. An unknown truck that transports unknown material and look at it this way. Maybe it wasn't attacking the transport. What if it was guarding it?"** Barry presented a theory

 **"That could be. I never thought of it like that, Winn automatically supposed that if the Hellgrammite was attacking the transport, because that's what he does usually. Ok, I'll take him to the DEO. You follow that truck, I'll be with you as soon as I can"** Kara smiled and in a moment she was gone with the bug in tow. Barry called Winn.

 **"Winn, do you have a location on the truck that the Hellgrammite was attacking?"**

 **"No, but I can look it up for you. Give me a minute"** he responded and after a short while **"I found the truck, this is weird, it's parked at an inlet in the same forest but about 4 km away. This is the GPS spot"** Barry received the ping and arrived there in less than a second. What he saw in the back of the car confirmed his suspicions. **"Do you have any data about the bug being able to turn other people into copies of himself?"**

 **"No, why ?"** Winn asked. Barry heard a sonic boom in the distance and Kara was next to him in the following moments.

 **"Because there are cocoons in this truck. Three of them are already broken, the rest are intact. You should add that "skill"** to the array of powers this bug has" Barry replied.

 **"This presents a problem. What do we do with these?"** Kara asked.

 **"Burn them. I don't think we can afford 12 hellgrammites running around. We already have three that are loose already"** Barry replied. The blonde was conflicted but saw the wisdom in what the speedster said so she directed her heat beams at the fuel tank of the truck, provoking an explosion that torched the remaining cocoons.

 **"Done. But we still have those that are in the wind. Do you think that those ones have the same powers as the original? I would sincerely not want to have to battle an army of those things"** She asked looking rather disturbed at the person who was now looking at the fire.

 **"I really don't know, Kara. It would be bad indeed. Let's hope for the best"** Barry smiled to his girlfriend and took her into his arms and ran straight back to the DEO.

 **"I looked into what else I could pull up on his species but they do not seem to have the ability you described. They should not be able to turn other people into copies of themselves or even into spawns of themselves. Could this be a variant of the genetic heritage that it might have?"** Winn asked.

 **"I do not know anything from the Kryptonian archives that would imply that"** Kara replied **"Maybe J`onn would know more"**

 **"I'll ask him whenever he comes back in. There was something that he had to do so he left early"** Winn replied to her question.

 **"Well we're glad that we actually got him. It would have been a problem if he didn't try to move his offspring. Can you imagine him just continuing to do so and releasing an army of those bugs on National City? That would have been a real thorn in the side"** the blonde said

 **"There is something that still needs to be checked. Which chemical plant was that from where the truck initially left ?"** the speedster asked.

 **"The one on the east side of town. Here"** Winn pointed at a location on a map.

 **"Let's go check that out, I still have a bad feeling about all of this." Barry replied getting ready to run. Kara was right beside him as the two disappeared in a gust of wind. She usually flew but in the city where short distances were concerned and time wasn't a factor she actually enjoyed running beside her boyfriend instead of flying. The couple arrived at the chemical plant.**

 **"I don't see anything inside. Could this one have the same structure as the one where we found Parasite?"** Kara asked.

 **"More than likely. Every chemical plant in National City was built by about the same schematics. They all have storage where to keep potential hazardous side products for what they're actually producing, by that I suspect that they all have spill tanks from those storage spaces in case of emergency so that the chemicals don't go into the ground. Try looking and see if you can find something down there"** Barry told her while he flashed inside to see if the monstrous structure still had people inside or it was abandoned. Kara looked around there was nothing underground at the spot she was expecting. Then she realized that the orientation was wrong. This factory had the storage space on the other side of the production space. Imagining a mirror image of the initial factory that they had fought the Parasite in, she moved toward the location where the large underground tank was supposed to be. Low and behold after a few minutes she found it. Barry arrived next to her a couple of seconds later.

 **"This one is completely deserted. It would make sense that the bug would hide here. Did you find anything?"** he asked.

 **"You were right, the same space that there was under the storage area at the chemical plant is here too. It's shielded by lead of course, so I can't see inside. " Kara told him**

 **"This however does not require you to dig all the way to it. It seems that it has a secondary access tunnel that leads up. I already found that door but I didn't know where it lead so I left it alone"** Barry flashed Kara and himself in the storage area showing her a door that was capped with a large iron frame that seemed to had rusted shut since the factory had been left to die. The blond ripped it open rather easily and a wave of hot air hit their faces with a peculiar smell.

 **"Why does this look like we're going down into a nest full of face huggers?"** Barry said with a bit of worry on his face.

 **"Face huggers? What are those?"** the blonde looked at him with a confused face.

 **"Are you serious? Have you never seen the Alien movies?"** the speedster gave her the stink eye

 **"I don't know, are those the ones with the large round thing that aliens came through?"** She asked looking at him with a quizzical face.

 **"Not that's something else"** Barry almost face palmed then saw the corner of her mouth. She was smirking **"You know what face huggers are, don't you?"**

 **"Of course I do. What do you take me for, I love those movies, except maybe the last one. That kind of sucked"** the blonde quipped making Barry start to laugh heartily.

 **"Yeah. That kind of sucked indeed. Come on, let's go down there and see what's up"** He took her hand and they started descending into the darkness. Kara could see perfectly, Barry however almost fell on his face. He got annoyed after the third broken step and started to vibrate his hand where a lightning bolt appeared lighting the way.

 **"Everyone loves their abandoned buildings. Can't someone shack up in a basement that at least has power"** He grumbled.

 **"What, you afraid of the dark, Flash?"** Kara chuckled.

 **"No. I don't want for my face to make close acquaintance with the floor. That's all"** he gave her a winning smile. When they reached the bottom of the stairs there was another door that this time was open. With the light that Barry generated they could see it lead onto some kind of catwalk. As they went out they managed to make up what the room contained.

 **"Damn. More of them"** Kara looked at Barry with a disgusted face.

 **"Now what. We don't have fuel to burn them with " the speedster replied.**

 **"I'll use my heat vision then " She said simply as two beams went out of her eyes and started cutting the masses that were on the floor and the walls of the large room. Barry flashed out for a little while. He thought that it was impossible for a chemical plant not to have at least some sort of flammable substance. He didn't find any, but in a shed outside there were a couple of barrels of oil and a few canisters of gas. That seemed enough, Barry began flashing in and out of the large room dumping the substances off the catwalk into the place below.**

 **"There we go. I brought some help. Hit those and I'll speed us out and seal this door. The backlash from the explosion contained here should burn everything"** The speedster replied. Kara agreed but before they did that she pulled on the door to the catwalk that was open and saw that it was in perfect working condition. The dry air only made it make noises but there was no rust. She jumped in his arms and lit the oil in which the fuel barrels were. Barry instantly took them outside sealing both doors behind them. Kara had just enough time to seal the large hatch to the outside with her heat vision. After a few seconds they heard a loud bang and they felt what could only be classified as a mini earthquake under them.

 **"Let's go see what happened"** Kara tore the doors as the two went back down. The room was on fire from top to bottom, the explosion had destroyed everything inside as Barry had predicted. The two were pretty satisfied with the fact that there weren't any cocoons left besides the three that had escaped in the woods and returned to the DEO.

 **"There were cocoons at the chemical plant. We destroyed them"** Kara told Winn and Alex

 **"How many ?"** her sister asked.

 **"We didn't count, but my guess would be over 50. Now we just have three escapees that might pose a problem in the future. Just how in the future, that we don't know"** Barry replied. **"If Kara and J`onn don't know what kind of reproductive cycle these bug have, then we don't know if the escapees will even grow or even survive. I guess we'll find out"**

 **"I guess we will. But at least we got the big one. Where did you put him anyway?"** Kara asked her sister.

 **"In the usual place. But we are going to move him, Hank has been setting up a containment place offsite, so in case something happens here, like it did, the prisoners will not manage to escape"** She replied.

 **"What stops them from attacking the site directly?"** Barry questioned.

 **"The security system. That site will be for people that would get the death penalty otherwise. Aliens as well. SO if someone tries to break in, the nuke at the base of the building will go off. Incinerating anyone that's inside. Also it's underground so if that happens, it will come out at the most as a large thud"** Alex explained.

 **"That's… some way of preventing an escape"** Barry looked at her.

 **"Yeah, well. We try, but if someone else tries to break them out, they die. Seems fair. They were supposed to be dead in the first place"** she reasoned

 **"We're going to go home. If there's anything else, you know where to find us"** Kara replied and smiled toward the two. **"Also, Alex, whenever you want to spar with me, I'm up for it now"**

 **"Are you now?"** The DEO agent smiled

 **"Yes, dear sister, I am" the blonde told her sister with a pretty confident look that took her by surprise.**

 **"I can barely wait"** The answer came. Barry and Kara sped off toward home, ready for a night amongst themselves with movies food and being in each other's company.


	23. Intensity

Barry had been joking about Kara's fight with her sister and nicknamed it **"The match to end all matches"** , even if it wasn't a match at all. He actually did it so often that even Kara herself got annoyed at him a few times. They had set the whole sparring challenge on a Saturday so in case there were ... victims, or in this case … losers they could go out and drink to feel better. Of course, Barry came up with the idea except it got rejected by Kara almost instantly. She didn't want to prove her sister was weak, she wanted to prove that she could take care of herself and the control that she now had over her own power. In the same comical manner, Barry had arranged his own sparring match with Hank in the same day. Of course, it was all in good fun, but him repeating it so often and giving it names and treating it like it was some K1 tournament annoyed Kara a bit. He didn't stop at first but let it slide when he saw that it was really bothering his beautiful girlfriend. Somehow the word had gotten out about what was going to happen so Cat wanted in on the action too. They made sure that there were no DEO agents there, Barry had faith in Kara that she would trash Alex. But the people in the agency that respected her didn't need to see that. For them, Alex was still supposed to remain the top agent and Hank their boss.

Kara noticed that he did his best to make sure that the fights were private and that nobody would actually be there for them. Barry explained to her why and she saw that he really cared about her sister, even if sometimes he made bad jokes about their fight. Both agents agreed to the terms so, the next Saturday after the Hellgrammite incident they all met at the DEO. Cat wanted to come with her driver, but Barry told her to call when she was ready and they he would pick her up. There was no need for a driver when you have the fastest man on the planet to take you around from place to place. The media mogul understood that rather fast and agreed. She was now in the sparring room at the DEO with Winn. Both Kara and Barry came with their normal work attire, their suits always with them, but they had no point since both the sparring sessions would be held without superpowers. Their clothes reflected that. Alex however was a bit concerned.

 **"Why are you doing this here and not in the green room?"** she asked.

 **"I'm not going back to that room and you know why. Are you afraid I'll hurt you?"** Kara asked bluntly

 **"Actually, yes, I am. You have said it yourself that you can't control your powers all the time when you fight. That was the initial purpose of that room, so you don't flick your finger and break my neck"** Alex reminded her.

 **"She doesn't need it now"** Barry said with a proud look on his face.

 **"What do you mean she doesn't need it now? Without that she still has her power, which means she will still be impervious to my punches. How am I supposed to fight with someone that's invulnerable?"** her sister asked a bit distraught.

 **"This isn't about who wins. Although to be fair even weakened by the green room she would totally whoop your ass now. It's about you gauging her ability to defend herself and to see the results of the training we did together"** Barry replied nonchalantly

 **"Well then I guess we shall have to see won't we"** Alex made a smirk at the speedster. Kara took off her Jacket as usual and her guns which he handed to Barry and stepped in the middle of the room.

 **"Oh you'll see it all right"** Barry returned the smirk and looked at Kara with a proud glint in his eyes.

 **"Are you really going to have Supergirl spar with Alex? I know she's a DEO agent but she's still just human"** Cat asked surprised.

 **"Yes. The training we did together wasn't just to show her moves. I managed to teach her self-control and discipline as well. Just wait, Cat, I promise you will love this"** Barry replied. The media mogul didn't ask any more questions watching the two women in the center of the room that were ready to start sparring. They took their stances, Kara again opting for a neutral stance that offered her no attack or defense strength or weaknesses and they began. Winn remembered how Barry fought from the last time that he saw him. He was pleasantly surprised to see that Kara had picked up his type of movements. Fluid and fast, with punches and hits at certain spots. However he saw another thing. Kara was confident. She managed to block Alex's hits consistently, not even looking like she was trying. In reality Barry was watching her every move. It was obvious that hitting and dodging were done as he had taught her, but the power that was behind the punches was severely restricted by her own reflexes.

The Martian was watching himself. He was pleasantly surprised to see that Kara could stand up to her sister without any sort of issue, but what impressed him greatly was the fact that she could spar with a human and not kill her with a misplaced punch at full power. Cat however was enjoying the fight. She had no idea that Kara knew how to fight like this. For her Supergirl had always won with sheer strength, seeing the beautiful fluent moves that made Kara look like she was dancing without actually breaking a sweat was something that she was impressed about.

 **"J`onn, I know this might tire you out for our sparring session, but would you mind going in there to give Alex a hand?"** Barry smiled at the alien

 **"I suppose not. But why?"** He asked the speedster.

 **"Go in there and use your full power. What I taught Kara was not only precise control in her fights with one enemy, but also in the case that there were more with different levels of power as well"** The speedster replied.

 **"So you want me to go at Kara with my full strength?"** he inquired and the speedster nodded.

 **"Isn't he human too?"** Cat asked with surprise.

 **"Oh, no, he's a shapeshifter from Mars. He's about as strong as she is. Remember when Kara told you that she had a friend who could take her form? That's him"** Barry pointed to Kara

 **"Oh. Right, she did tell me about him. Why didn't I think of that"** Cat admonished herself for even asking

 **"Isn't that a bit unfair? Two against one?"** Winn chimed in

 **"Winn, in life fights are almost never fair. You'll see she can handle herself and then some"** Barry smiled. The Martian went into the ring and threw a punch, only for Kara to stop him as easily as she stopped Alex, only this time the impact of the block stirred up wind a minor sonic event. He started to attack her as well, combining attacks with Alex and looking for open spots. Kara however wasn't fazed at all by the addition of another participant. Her demeanor indeed changed to counter the second opponent, but it all seems so seamless to everyone around her, except Barry. He saw the impacts that Hank's hit were way stronger than they appeared. It had been almost 10 minutes since Supergirl was keeping both Alex and Hank at arm's length, this time the boredom seemed to have gone from her face and it was overtook by focus.

 **"Kara, I think that's enough, don't you?"** He voiced toward his girlfriend. **"You proved your point since 5 minutes ago"** In the ruffle, Kara looked at him and smiled. The next 2 hits put Alex to the ground, while she went full on attack mode on J`onn. The hits were stirring up currents of wind and vibrations, but she knew exactly where to hit. After another maybe 10 seconds with a 4 hit combo she made him fly into the wall and leave an indent. She stopped, Bowed and smiled to the audience. Cat and Winn had to find their jaws that dropped somewhere in the last 30 seconds. They couldn't believe their eyes as the blonde put them down with precise hits that would more than likely kill anyone instantly if she put her whole force behind them.

 **"That was fun! Still nowhere near the workout I get with you, but still. Fun. We should do this more often"** She smiled toward her sister who barely managed to get up and sit down on a chair. She lifted her shirt and the usual bruises were there. Kara had managed to do the same type of damage, without her power being restricted, that Barry did.

 **"We should, but … how long am I going to be like this. I don't want to not be able to move for 3 days again?"** She pouted.

 **"I actually don't know, I don't have the accuracy that Barry has in predicting how much force it takes to keep you fatigued a set amount of time"** Kara pouted showing the others that no matter how confident she was, she knew that she had more to learn. Barry walked over to the DEO agent and raised her shirt higher looking at the bruising.

 **"This is I think about 2 to 3 days. But I can't be sure since I wasn't the one that was applying the pressure"** Barry concluded. **"I would heal you, but I still have a sparring match myself"**

 **"Not anymore"** Hank sat himself in a chair panting himself **"I was hitting her with all the strength I have and she blocked my every move. The hits that I received I think had the same effect on me as they did on Alex. While I do heal fast, I think I'll still be out of action for at least today"**

 **"All right"** the speedster replied **"Some other time then. Alex, mind closing your eyes?"** She did as she was asked and Barry put a hand on her chest. The two vibrated for a bit and her bruising was gone. **"There we go. All better"** He took a seat next to Kara and she just got up and sat in his lap.

 **"That was amazing. I thought for sure that you'll lose it and throw me across the room with a punch or something like that. It didn't happen, not even the hits that Barry showed you, which I realize that if you had not controlled the impact could have put me out of action for a long while or even killed me, did any sort of real damage except draining my stamina. I have to hand it to you, Barry. The level of control she had before is nothing compared to this"** Alex smiled brightly at the two. It was obvious that this is what Barry wanted from the start, she knew that her sister's deepest fear is hurting someone because she couldn't restrict herself. The speedster simply removed that by giving her unparalleled control on the immense strength she had.

 **"I told you I was ready. I always wanted to do this, not be in the green room that always hurt me. Just to be able to spar with you openly without the fear of breaking your neck like a twig"** Kara added and Cat made wide eyes at the statement. The media mogul realized now why she did not like physical contact that much.

 **"You have learned martial arts as well Alex. You know that while the techniques do count, it teaches you discipline, control and, most of the times, serenity and peace of mind. That is what I taught her as well"** He smiled brightly nodding toward his girlfriend.

 **"You weren't there for the white Martian fight. She took down one of those and by what Barry said only used a minor amount of her powers. That was very nice to see for a change. Supergirl not running head first but planning and executing hits with speed and accuracy"** Hank said, realizing that his voice held a hint of pride while talking about how the blonde had fought that day.

 **"Give me a minute"** Barry got up gently putting Kara on her feet. He started running and came back. One flash of lightning had already gone out the door while the other version of him, wearing his flash suit was sitting in front of them. Winn had never seen this trick so he immediately started to gawk at the second speedster in front of them. Cat had the same face, looking at Barry who talked to his double as nonchalantly as she would talk to them.

 **"You know what you have to do, right?"** Barry smiled at his double.

 **"Yep. Give me 15 minutes"** He smiled and was out the door followed by a trail of lightning.

 **"What was that about?"** Alex looked at him.

 **"I thought since we have the day off and everything, I would take Kara out on a date and since I don't really have to go do stuff myself, I sent two of my time remnants to do the job for me"** He laughed. The blonde wasn't even surprised that he didn't ask. He already knew what her answer would have been anyway.

 **"We're going on a date?"** the blonde joked looking at the speedster who just smiled.

 **"That was, different. How many of those can you actually do?"** The Martian asked

 **"I have no idea, I have never done more than two. It does take a lot of energy so I probably would be able to make 10 or around that. But since I never tried I cannot be sure"** the speedster said nonchalantly.

 **"So, at any time there could be 10 of you roaming around the world and National City wouldn't even know it?"** Cat asked surprised.

 **"Pretty much. Although they do have a set period of time that they can stay in our dimension, so ... I can't actually use this trick in the way you`re suggesting, Cat"** the speedster replied.

 **"Still, pretty neat. Well this was actually interesting. I see now that Kara is a badass as Barry was in the beginning when he outclassed Alex. This was totally something that I needed to see. If nobody needs me I'm going to go home and get some rest and relaxation"** Winn smiled. Since nobody had any problem with that and Cat wanted the same, Barry flashed them both home remaining with J`onn and Kara.

 **"You two should be careful. Those people from CADMUS might still be after you. This time you two are alone, not even Cat is there with you so … take care of yourselves. Unless you plan to leave National City for your date"** Hank smiled

 **"I don't know, Mr. Secretive here would"** Kara grinned.

 **"Well it's not exactly in the city, but it is on top of a hill, so there wouldn't be vantage points for snipers and the likes"** Barry replied. The blonde then realized where they were going. Back on that hill that they spent the first day after he had arrived into this dimension. Barry looked at her face **"Now you know where we're going?"** He inquired making Kara nod positively.

 **"Congratulations are in order, for both of you. Kara, you managed to actually surpass me and Alex in hand to hand and Barry, you seem to have a knack to teach people things"** Hank replied.

 **"No, J`onn, I don't. I suck as a teacher. Kara is naturally intelligent and she can absorb the information at a high rate of speed. Give her the credit she deserves"** Barry smiled to which Kara replied.

 **"Shut up. Your teaching is fine. Take a compliment you dork"** The three started to laugh. The Martian left himself and Barry flashed them both to the outskirts of the city. She knew the spot quite well, from their first day and from a few other times that they decided to just take a break and go out of the city. This was their favorite spot. There two time remnants were waiting for them, both dressed in flash suits. As they arrived Barry thanked them for helping and the two said their farewells leaving to return to the speed force. Even The blanket was the same, it had a dorky vase with flowers on it and on the side there were a few containers. Some were pizza, some were pot stickers and some were opaque, but after Kara scanned them she saw that there was chocolate cake in there.

 **"So what brought this on?"** Kara looked at him **"I know I'd never say no to a date with you, but at least give me some time to look nice"** She pointed at them and the fact they were still dressed in their suits carrying their weapons.

 **"You look beautiful in anything so I don't think clothes would be a problem"** Barry smiled. **"I thought it would be a nice occasion to celebrate what you`ve managed to achieve"** He smiled.

 **"That's a pretty good reason actually"** the blonde smiled **"I managed to take two people with two different levels of power and not kill the weaker one. I love the control that I have now. All thanks to you"** She moved closer to him taking his hand in hers.

 **"I knew you could do it. The fact that you picked up everything so fast is still impressive to me, knowing that I had to work almost 2 years to learn the non-lethal variant. You have this immense capacity to learn and absorb knowledge, but sometimes you love playing the dumb blonde. Why is that? It's something I could never understand about you, or the other Kara"** Barry asked pretty seriously .

 **"You already know that most people here, at least the ones in charge fear aliens. That's only because of my strength and powers, imagine how it would be if they find out that I'm a genius too. Not only would they be completely outclassed in power but in wits too, which might lead them to do stupid mistakes. IF they at least think they can outsmart me, then the amount of danger they put the people that they send after me gets lowered significantly. To be honest, I wouldn't put it past these guys to try to nuke me out of the sky if their paranoia gets too high"** Kara replied, getting a pot sticker from a container that was arranged neatly on the blanket near the flowers.

 **"I find this strange. I knew that the world in my time had paranoia and fear about you alien types. But they never tried to nuke you. Although, sending modified humans with alien DNA after you would classify itself as trying to murder you"** Barry took a piece of pizza and started munching.

 **"Some people just never learn. Before I had to fight Non, general Lane tried to butt in and take control of the DEO. Hank managed to put him in his place, but by what I've seen, all he wanted it capture all aliens and put them behind bars. It didn't matter to him if they were innocent or not"** She said with a sickened look on her face.

 **"That won't happen. I'm not happy you asked Hank to literally lobotomize those two, but it was necessary. I'm glad you didn't step into the shadows. Although, I do have to say, that red K outfit looks pretty darn hot on you, Supergirl"** Barry gave her a pervy smirk.

 **"How do you know what happened back then? You were unconscious on a table"** She asked him surprised.

 **"I looked through the surveillance footage when we were here after J`onn obtained that information for us. I wondered what he had done to them to talk, since ... as you know, I know ways myself of getting information out of people"** He gave her a half smile

 **"I really wanted to kill them, Barry. I wanted to burn their limbs off and throw them to the dogs, that's how angry I was. Besides, my outfit is supposed to bring hope and a feeling of safety, the red K outfit was made when all I wanted to bring was misery and pain. It seemed adequate to wear that if I was going to … get information out of people. Also I had no idea you thought that was hot"** She grinned at him munching on another pot sticker.

 **"Well, to be fair, you would look hot in anything, or without anything as the case might be"** the speedster said nonchalantly prompting Kara to remember the time they went to the Maldives and blush profusely **"But yes, I can't explain it but you in all black just gives me …ahem... goosebumps"** he stopped himself from saying something else.

 **"Is that what you really wanted to say?"** She chuckled seeing Barry grin.

 **"Yes. Totally. That's exactly what I wanted to say. Nothing else"** he babbled a bit then started to laugh.

 **"I think I might go home and change. I would love to take in some sun while we stay here"** She started to speak. In a matter of seconds she was dressed in her Supergirl suit and him in his flash suit as he was holding their clothes in his arms.

 **"Be right back. I put your suit on because I don't think you'd have liked remaining with nothing but a pair of underwear in the middle of an empty field"** He grinned and flashed back home getting her one of her usual dresses, he chose an azure one for now and changing himself in a pair of dark shorts and a t-shirt. As soon as he was back, he pressed her belt buckle again the suit going back into her necklace and she was dressed in the dress that he brought with him **"How's that?"** he smiled.

 **"Fine. Thank you. This is much better. As much as I like those suits we wear to work, they barely let me absorb any sunlight. While it's not required, since you can charge me up if I need it, I do love the sun's rays on my skin. I always have"** She told him while she put her head in his lap looking up.

 **"Then maybe you should start wearing a skirt to work? I don't know"** He put out a thought. **"You know those suits don't usually come with pants for women, right?"**

 **"Of course I know, even if I wore turtlenecks and jeans most of my life to stay incognito doesn't mean I don't know fashion"** She grinned **"But I don't think it would be a good idea. The mobility I have with the pants is fine"**

 **"You can always try it. If you don't like it go back to pants. Not like you`re stuck wearing only one type of clothes for the rest of your NCPD career"** Barry smiled.

 **"You`re just saying that so you could stare at my ass while we work. Say it's not so"** She quipped at him.

 **"It's not so"** she said but his face and the smirk totally betrayed him

 **"Uh huh. Now try it again with a straight face"** She laughed.

 **"Of course it is. You know I'd take every chance I get to ogle my beautiful girlfriend. Come on"** Barry started to laugh

 **"I might just consider it then"** She gave him a seductive smile totally surprising him.

 **"Just remember, the others will be looking at you as well"** Barry reminded her.

 **"Still considering it " Kara replied pulling his face down as their lips touched. "I love you"**

 **"I love you too"** he told her. The two spent the remaining time watching the sunset in each other's arms. As it was getting dark they decided it was time to go back home. She had seen that he was pensive so after they got home and sat as usual on the couch she decided to ask.

 **"What's on your mind?"**

 **"This whole CADMUS thing. The ones that are trying to kill you. There's something that just doesn't sit right with me. It's been gnawing at the back of my mind since this started happening"** He replied.

 **"Tell me"** the answer came almost instantly **"If you can't tell your girlfriend then who can you tell"** she smiled brightly.

 **"I was comparing what happened to CADMUS in my timeline to what's happening now. Somehow I thought that the changes in tactics that they are employing now are somehow my fault for creating the alternate timeline in the other universe"** He sighed again looking down

 **"Even if it is, Barry, we can take care of it. You and me against them. Don't you think that's enough?"** she asked seriously.

 **"It might not be. The last time we fought them, it was almost an all-out war, we had to enlist all the heroes that we could find from my earth and yours. I don't know if it's the same here, but they had experiments that created creatures specifically designed to kill you and Kal. I still remember a few of their botched experiments and the other Kara almost dying a few times. The thing was … the man that they had forced to create these abominations was none other than Jeremiah Danvers"** Barry told her truthfully

 **"You mean, our dad? Why would he do that? Create something that would destroy the same thing that he swore to Superman to protect"** the blonde asked him with surprise.

 **"Because he was forced to. He wanted to protect you, not Kal. In that arrangement somewhere he was supposed to build weapons to kill Kal, but of course if they could kill him, they could kill you. Even though he said that he would rather die than make those weapons, he started to after they had agreed to leave you alone"** Barry explained to her. **"From when the other Kara arrived on Earth till about your age, she was under the protection of that understanding, but only if she didn't become Supergirl. The moment she did she opened herself to attacks from the same people that were trying to kill Superman"**

 **"It might have well happened here. From what we know and what Alex told me, Jeremiah is dead. Or he should be dead, in reality he went MIA. I don't know what to tell you"** Kara replied.

 **"Jeremiah disappeared in my timeline too. He was found later at a CADMUS base, after we managed to track them down"** Barry replied.

 **"Do you remember where that base was?"** Kara asked with a glint of hope in her eyes

 **"It's not there. I already tried to see if that location exists when Alex mentioned one time about Jeremiah. It would have been something if I would have managed to bring your dad back, sadly that isn't the case"** The speedster replied.

 **"It's fine, I'm glad that you actually took the time to try. It's not your problem, it's my family"** Kara kissed his lips

 **"Kara, you`re my beautiful girlfriend. At this point your family is my family. Of course it's my problem as well. You are my family now"** Barry told her with a serious tone and face. Kara looked at him and saw that he was dead serious then his serious face turned into a goofy smile that was patented to the speedster which told her that everything will be all right.

 **"Thank you. I see now that it was wrong to think that you wouldn't help when it was something related to my family. Forgive me. I love you"** She looked at the speedster and tears started flowing out down her face. Barry was conflicted, because all he could feel from her was perfect bliss, happiness and love and she was crying.

 **"No need to forgive anything. You need to know that I'm here for you. Whatever you need, whenever you need it. I'll be there to help. Anything, Kara. From making pancakes to killing someone and getting rid of the body"** Barry said with a steel conviction in his eyes. Kara could feel herself the love that was coming off her boyfriend, the passion and the conviction that was present when he said those words.

 **"Hey, I'm not the mob"** She chuckled slightly **"I'm glad you`re here. You were wrong"** Kara told him bluntly

 **"What was I wrong about?"** the question came

 **"You thought that what you went through might change the way I looked at you. It might have done that indeed, but the red K incident gave me some understanding of the things you can do when all you feel is anger and grief. If that didn't happen I might have well not have got your reasons for killing and turning vigilante or I might have understood but not be ok with them. I will never be ok with killing as a first solution, but I still feel the same as you, Barry. Maybe because I went through the same thing. Your heart is in the right place and since you`ve been here you have never killed anyone if you could help it"** He tried to say something but she stopped him **"Yes, I know about the persons at the restaurant. Cat told me what you did. I also know about you saying that you'd rather kill someone than letting me taste the guilt that comes with your first victim " Barry looked at her and his jaw fell**

 **"You were awake huh?"** He smiled.

 **"Barely, but I heard the discussions. Barry, I want you to understand something. As you would kill anyone that tries to kill me or harm me, if it was me in that restaurant, I would have cut off their limbs and played ball with their bodies. Or just cracked their skulls and turn them into mush. I know you might not want me to taste that, but when it comes to you, the person I love with all my heart, I will murder every last one of them, if something happens. You were kind, you dissolved them into nothingness and their death was instant, almost like a mercy killing. I won't be kind if that ever happens. Happy, bubbly Supergirl can be a really Menacing person"** She told him deadly serious. He started to chuckle however.

 **"Dennis again?"** He replied trying to lighten up the mood

 **"No, the Flash type of Menace. A … super Menace"** she heard herself saying that and her serious face cracked and started to laugh.

 **"Well, that's at least an upgrade from super toddler"** Barry said remembering the last time he called her that.

 **"Shut up, old man"** this time she stood up and grabbed him. Her lips were on his with a passion that he didn't believe existed in the shy Kara Danvers. He felt her embrace, but it was not hurting him, Kara realized that she let go and pulled back a bit scared. Barry was grinning.

 **"You let go and you didn't crush me. You didn't try to control your strength at all just now did you ?"**

 **"No, not at all"** she replied kissing him again softly and taking his hand. **"Come with me"** she gave him a seductive smile. Barry followed as they both went to the bedroom bumping into things along the way as they kissed.

The next morning Kara woke up being sore in places she didn't think she could be sore. Her alien physique had withstood nuclear blasts and never felt like this. She looked at the room, it was a complete mess, but that didn't matter. Lazily she moved her head looking at the man that she was with, who had woken up feeling movement.

 **"Good morning, Barry"** She smiled at him hugging him tighter. **"Last night was … amazing"**

 **"Good morning, Kara" he replied looking around and almost face palming "It was more than amazing, it was … super. I never knew the fan above the bed was one of the places that you usually keep your panties on"** He chuckled. She looked above and started to laugh.

 **"Me neither, must be some new trend we started last night. That was out of this world"** She managed to utter still feeling soreness in her muscles.

 **"Yes it was. But what can I say, nothing normal would happen when you have a superhero girlfriend. More to the point, of course it was out of this world, since neither of us are FROM this world"** Barry chuckled

 **"At least you don't have to eat 50 pizzas now"** She remembered what he had told her **"I'm glad you taught me to subconsciously control my power. I could let go and know for a fact that I wouldn't hurt you"**

 **"Still. That was something that I don't think we're liable to forget for a long, long time. Maybe we should take a day off from work, you know, have a few repeats of last night"** Barry smirked.

 **"Think you can keep up, scarlet speedster?"** she grinned.

 **"Oh you just watch me, girl of steel"** He replied to her with the same smirk, kissing her neck and drawing her closer.


	24. Kidnapping

It was early morning for the two, they went to work as always. As they came back in the Lab with a cup of coffee each laughing about something that they had seen on TV the other night, Kara's phone rang.

 **"Kara, I need your help. Barry's too"** Kal was at the other end of the line. The way he said it make it abundantly clear that he was extremely stressed.

 **"Whoa, whoa. Calm down, cousin. What's the problem?"** She asked.

 **"Lois is missing. She was kidnapped. At first I thought that she just took a few days off because she wasn't feeling well. But I have tried to get in touch with her for the last three days and nothing"** Kal explained on the phone

 **"Are you sure she's missing? Maybe she just wanted some time off even from you. Women do that sometime"** Kara answered putting the phone on speaker.

 **"I am. I have received a ransom demand for her. Which is a bit strange, because it doesn't ask for money, just that Superman be in a specific place two days from now at midnight or she dies"** He said on the phone.

 **"Sure we'll help but what can we actually do?"** Barry asked

 **"Maybe you can come here and work your magic see if you can find something or who would do that. I'm pretty sure this is trap for Superman, but I want to know who is responsible, so I know what to expect"** Kal replied.

 **"We can try. Give us a bit of time to set something up. So we have two days ? Today and tomorrow?"** Kara asked

 **"Yes. I'll be at home. Since Clark is the one that got the ransom demand, I need to be here in case they call or ... something"** He replied.

 **"Ok. Give us a little while. We need to set up something"** Barry replied. **"Be there as soon as we can"** The couple closed the line and went directly to the DEO to talk to their Martian boss.

 **"J`onn, we need some assistance. A friend of hours in Metropolis got kidnapped. They`re trying to draw Superman out into a trap with the help of this person"** Kara asked nonchalantly

 **"I can try. What do you need?"** he asked. He and Superman had a bit of falling out because the DEO used to hold Kryptonite in case something went wrong, he still considered the man a friend, nonetheless. That being said, it didn't mean that much that it was for him, Kara was asking for help.

 **"Since the DEO is supposed to be a covert agency, can we get like some other sort of credentials that would give us access wherever we need as cops, Including cooperation from the NCPD"** Kara replied.

 **"Winn can set you up with a pair of Department of Homeland Security badges that will come back to us if someone tries to run them to see if they are valid"** Hank told them.

 **"Would that work? I mean wouldn't the real DHS have something to say?"** Barry asked pretty bluntly

 **"No. This agency was made precisely so that the others would not interfere with our business. Which means that if we issue those badges, they won't even be notified if they try to backtrack the badges. They will come directly to us. We can do that without much of an issue. Those badges should grant you unrestricted access"** He explained

 **"Can you square up things with the precinct? It would be a bit weird since we're kind of public figures that we now show up with DHS badges. Most of them already know us as Detectives"** Kara reminded him that in a way the two were actually public figures

 **"It's fine. We can always say that you`re part of a taskforce that is working with the DHS and you are with them for the duration"** he answered swiftly.

 **"Thank you for the quick help. I know you don't see eye to eye with my cousin"** Kara replied.

 **"If we don't see eye to eye it doesn't mean I don't consider the man a friend. Also you asked so, that's more than enough. Get going, Winn will set you up and I'll take care of the rest"** the Martian told them. The couple exited and went straight to the person they were told to visit. It took only about 30 minutes and he had some DHS badges ready for them with shields and everything.

 **"It would be a good idea to leave the NCPD shields behind. You have these now so you have no need for them while you are in Metropolis"** the man explained.

 **"We will. We'll go to the precinct and leave them. We need to get a CSI kit with us anyway. Nice work on getting these done so fast Winn. Thank you"** Barry commended the man for being prompt.

 **"No problem. Be safe and don't get killed. Both of you"** He smiled.

 **"One more thing, can you hack into the NCPD database and send Cat the info on the most wanted people while we're gone? We wouldn't like her to be without material just because we're out of town"** Kara asked him

 **"No problem. Consider it done"** Winn quipped and he went back to his duties.

The two went back to the NCPD and left their badges, grabbed a CSI kit, told Captain Singer that the DEO requires their services and that he should be receiving a request in the next hour. When the captain asked them where they were leaving they only said that it's classified and they are not able to discuss it at the time. However, Kara hinted that they were going to Metropolis to find someone that was after Superman. The captain agreed and told them to be careful.

 **"How do we do this. You want to fly or should I carry you?"** Barry asked.

 **"Whichever is more convenient. I can do both and since you can send me speed, I can keep up with you no problem"** Kara replied. She did know what she wanted thought, she enjoyed either running with Barry or being carried by him.

 **"Ok then, we don't know what we're running into. I'll carry you. That way at least you'll be at full strength in case something happens"** Barry replied.

 **"Good thinking. I'll ride with you then"** Both changed and put their clothes in a bag, including some supplementary ones who might come in handy, Kara jumped into Barry's arms and they were gone. The trip to Metropolis was quite long, but with the speedster's velocity it wouldn't take that much.

 **"Remember to close your eyes. I'm going to be pushing it, not run at the usual speed I do"** The speedster told her. She nodded and he was off. She did open her eyes for a few seconds just to spite him, but she could not even make out where they were, the world was just a blur.

 **"I'm guessing you don't know where Clark lives, do you?"** she asked. With her eyes closed.

 **"No. I knew where he lived back in my time, but if I remember correctly you did say something about the two buying an apartment together, so … yeah. I'll put that down as a no"** the speedster replied.

 **"OK, when we reach Metropolis, We just switch and I'll fly us there"** She smiled. HE didn't say anything, but she felt a soft kiss on her forehead. It didn't take nearly as long for them to arrive at the outskirts of Metropolis. Maybe two minutes had passed since they left the precinct. It was somehow comparable to the time they went to the Maldives. They stopped and Kara feeling the lack of wind on her face opened her eyes.

 **"Your turn. We're here"** Barry quipped. She smiled and grabbed him going through the air at a normal rate of speed for her. The speedster was mapping the city committing it to memory to find out where they were going and how to get back. They went down to a large building that had balconies on either side and Kara put them down in one. The door was already open so they went straight in.

 **"Hey you two. I thought you said you need a bit of time, it's not even been 2 hours since we talked"** Clark got up the couch and greeted the two who changed immediately in their work clothes. Barry motioned for them not to speak and motioned for Kara to scan the room with her vision. She started to point out things that weren't supposed to be there. Barry grabbed a Tupperware container and started to gather all the device in one spot. After the house was clean, or what Kara had deemed so. Barry finally spoke.

 **"I can run fast, but you already knew that. I carried Kara here since we needed to make the most out of the time we have"** Barry replied shaking hands with the man.

 **"We needed to get different credentials as well. Since us from the NCPD don't really have jurisdiction here. But these do"** Kara showed him the badges they were carrying now

 **"DHS? Isn't that … you know. Illegal?"** the man smiled.

 **"Not when you`re working for the DEO. If anyone tries to check these, it will turn back to Winn which will verify them. Ok, let's get down to business. Tell is in more detail what happened"** Barry sat down on the couch and Kara plopped in his lap.

 **"Most of what I know is what I have already told you. Lois went off the radar for a few days, she had just wanted to take a few days off before and never said where she was going, but then this arrived"** Clark handed them a note. **_"Tell Superman to be at the abandoned factory outside of town tomorrow night at midnight. If he's not there, then Lois Lane dies"_**

 **"Why would they send you this note and demand for Superman. I know that you take interviews of him and such. Or ... well yourself as the case may be. But these guys, just like with me and Kara, seem to think that we have the superheroes on speed dial. Which is ridiculous. Unless they have a suspicion about who we really are " Kara started**

 **"These mean that you got your house bugged just like they tried to do to us. You might have the same issue as we do. CADMUS. This seems like it's their MO. Do you remember something weird happened related to house or if you had a break in recently?"** Barry inquired looking at the devices that the two had managed to gather

 **"Yes, actually. I came home three days ago and found the front door unlocked. Which is weird because I have never forgotten to lock it in my entire life. I found it a bit odd but let it go"** He replied.

 **"That's probably when this happened. We can't worry not about what kind of information they might have gotten. But I suspect that they were trying to keep an eye on you and see if you call the cops or anything to that effect"** Kara thought out loud.

 **"That's strange. They don't mention anything about getting the police involved. You would think that in this kind of scenario there would be a disclaimer to the note saying, if you call the police then the hostage is dead"** the speedster added pulling out some stuff from the CSI kit and giving the not a once over. A few minutes later he gave up. The note was clean, not even a trace of evidence anywhere.

 **"That's what made me look strangely at the note too"** Clark replied **"Nobody says anything about the police. Which means that they don't care, could they be so well hidden that not even the cops could find them?"** He asked.

 **"Let's see. Put something on, we're going to pay a visit to Metropolis PD"** Barry told him and left the kit in his apartment **"If they don't agree to help us then you will have to show us where Lois is living now. We might be able to find something there"**

 **"All right"** Clark put some clothes on and they head down to the police department, where, the desk sergeant stopping Clark, but inviting the other two to go in.

 **"He's with us. This is part of an ongoing investigation"** Barry replied and the desk sergeant let him in as well. **"Is the commissioner in? We need to talk to him"**

 **"Yes. You will find Commissioner Corporon in his office"** the man replied and pointed to an office at the end of a long hall.

 **"Thank you"** Kara replied and the two followed by Clark went into the office that was pointed to.

 **"Good day, Commissioner"** Barry spoke

 **"And who might you be?"** He inquired already noticing Clark behind them

 **"We're with the DHS. This is agent Allen, I'm agent Danvers. We have been drafted temporarily due to a national threat that had been first discovered in National City. Now, this threat might be here in Metropolis as well, so we came to investigate"** Kara explained to the man.

 **"I'm Commissioner Corporon. What can I do for you?"** he asked quite pleasantly

 **"The people we are after belong to a shadow organization that likes to try to kidnap normal people to threaten or capture superheroes. It happened to Supergirl and Flash in National City, also they like to try to kill the same heroes through traps or schemes. This is apparently what is happening here"** Barry started

 **"I assume you know Lois Lane from the Daily Planet?"** Kara asked nonchalantly. The man nodded and she continued **"She has apparently been kidnapped and Mr. Kent here got a ransom note"** She gave the commissioner the plastic evidence bag that held the note.

 **"I see. She's the hostage and they`re using her to try to draw Superman into a trap. It also explains why Mr. Kent got the note, those two are known for their articles on the Man of Steel which might explain the whole thing. Is this why you thought this might be the same case as in National City?"** he asked.

 **"Yes. Since they didn't mention anything about the police department, we thought that maybe you can give Mr. Kent a hand in finding Ms. Lane. Or at least some sort of evidence of her whereabouts"** Barry added swiftly

 **"What will you two be doing then?"** the man inquired

 **"We're going to help of course. Our main area of expertise is Crime Scene Investigation. Before we were drafted by the DHS, we were detectives at the NCPD" Kara explained.**

 **"I was sure you two seemed familiar. You`re those two that captured Toyman in National City"** The commissioner realized

 **"Yes. That's us. We're probably going to go back to being detectives, but first we need this threat neutralized or at least the danger to Superman removed"** Barry told the man.

 **"Metropolis PD will do whatever it can. I'll get Dan Turpin to speak with Mr. Kent. If there are any new developments, how can we contact you?"** he inquired

 **"Mr. Kent has our numbers. We're going to be at Ms. Lane's apartment going through to see if we can find any sort of evidence from the kidnapping. If you don't mind, can we use your Forensics lab in case we find anything?"** the speedster offered

 **"Yes. No problem. Mr. Kent, you already know Detective Turpin. Go speak with him. Is there anything else I can do?"** the commissioner asked.

 **"For now no. Thank you for the helping hand. Let's just hope we find something before everything goes off the rails"** Kara replied smiling. The man nodded and the three exited his office.

 **"I'm going to speak with Turpin. He helped me before on a number of things, he might know where to start"** Clark told them

 **"Ok. But first you need to show us where Lois lives"** Kara reminded him. The three went out of the precinct and, with Barry and Kara following him, Clark led them all the way back to the apartment.

 **"Here"** he showed them getting a key that he had in his pocket and opening the door

 **"Oh, you have keys to each other's apartments?"** Kara grinned at Kal.

 **"Of course we do, we've been dating longer than you've been with Barry"** He replied back with the same grin. **"I'm going back to the precinct. You two see if you can find anything here"** He sped out of the building while Barry and Kara started to look through the apartment. When they realized that they didn't have their kit with them, Barry ran back to Clark's place to get it and when he returned he found a passed out Kara on the floor. He started to shake her and ultimately just got out some smelling salts. She started to come around.

 **"What happened?"** Barry asked looking at her **"Are you hurt?"**

 **"No, I'm fine, just drained. I was struck by a bolt of lightning out of nowhere. Barry I think it was Leslie. I don't know anyone besides you who can generate that much current to make me blackout, except her"** Kara told him a bit disturbed by this new development.

 **"So, we come here to see if there is any evidence in helping to find Lois and you find Livewire. The timing is very interesting, also unfortunate. Come on, let's see what kind of evidence we can find. I'll book us a room at the hotel so we have someplace to stay for the night"** Barry added.

 **"We can always stay at Clark's"** She replied and then looked at Barry

 **"OK we'll ask. Ill book the room anyway and we can cancel if we can sleep at his place"** The speedster replied. They started to scour the apartment for bugs as they initially did with Clark's place. Surprisingly they didn't find any which made it a bit strange, at first glance, the apartment was clean, but after a second run through, Barry found some strange substance on one of the carpets and some blood.

 **"Do you think Lois is all right?"** Kara asked when she saw it.

 **"They would be stupid if she isn't. How would you use someone as a hostage if they are dead"** Barry replied sternly.

 **"You send a note with no proof of life?"** She told the speedster who realized that she was right

 **"Let's hope that's not the case"** The two began to look for evidence once more, this time finding something that they did not expect. Her laptop was thrown under the bed. Barry took it out and after a few minutes of trying passwords he managed to open it. **"Kara, look at this"** He pointed to a document that the reporter had recently had open. The article read simply, **" _What is CADMUS_?". **

**"She was looking into CADMUS? Why would she do that?"** the blonde asked while reading through her notes. The reporter didn't know much, but made a few suppositions that were spot on from what they knew already. That it was a community of ex-military and scientists that wanted to get rid of all the aliens and metahumans, using people that were supposed to be dead to do their dirty work.

 **"I don't know, but from what she wrote here her suppositions were correct. Which makes this even more interesting. Kara, I think this whole thing is a setup. The target wasn't Superman. It was her. She got kidnapped for poking her tail in the wrong business and since these people know her connection to Superman, he's just a bonus. Kill Superman, kill Lois Lane and CADMUS remains under the radar in Metropolis, free to do whatever they want. This is more than likely why she was kidnapped, not because she is a friend of the man of steel"** Barry postulated waiting for an opinion.

 **"That actually makes sense, but if it's true that means the persons that are calling Kal tomorrow will make sure that he dies. If he manages to rescue Lois, then that will only cement her conviction that CADMUS is up to no good and if she's on their tail then she won't rest until she exposes them completely"** Kara replied.

 **"Which explains why they want her dead or missing. I think we managed to get everything from here. Let's go to the CSI Lab here and see what we can get off the blood and the substance we found. I'll take the laptop to Clark's. I would suggest we don't give it to the police, they don't need to know about what we`re dealing with"** The speedster told his girlfriend who agreed.

Back at the CSI Lab the two were running the blood that they found only to have a very nasty surprise.

 **"The blood that we took from the apartment belongs to someone named Ben Krull"** The speedster told the blonde who made a grimace. **"Anyone you know?"**

 **"Reactron. That's who Ben Krull is"** Kara stated bluntly

 **"Wait, you mean as in the damn nuclear engineer that had a beef with Superman about his wife dying? I never knew his real name, you only told me you fought him and the other Kara never mentioned anything related to him"** Barry told her.

 **"I thought I defeated him. He was supposed to be locked up in the DEO, the thing is without his suit he can't control the radiation he puts out. If he was there with Lois then it might mean she could already be dead from radiation poisoning"** Kara told him with a dark face. It was something they had to tell Kal about but she didn't know how he would react to it.

 **"It is entirely possible at this point that Lois is dead or dying. Since she was the main target. The substance we found is nothing more than rust combined with some dirt. Nothing that won't be found at probably any abandoned site in this city or any other, so that won't help us that much"** Barry replied

 **"If this is all then we don't really have anything much to go on. Except that now I think we can say for sure that CADMUS in involved. We should go back to Clark's and see what else we can do with this. Maybe he and Turpin found something. Also we need to talk to Winn, to see if we can pinpoint Leslie"** Kara added. The two got their kit and the results and sped all the way to Clark's apartment stopping in the living room with a gust of wind. Strangely enough he wasn't there. Kara decided to call him.

 **"We're back home, where are you?"** She asked him

 **"Turpin pulled some of the traffic camera footage and we saw someone that looked like Lois being taken outside of the city in a white van. We're following that lead now. Did you two find anything?"** He asked.

 **"This is definitely the work of CADMUS. But you aren't the target, Lois was. She was writing an expose on them. We found her computer and Barry hacked it " Kara put her phone on speaker so that Barry could interject.**

 **"Clark, that's not all we found. There was some blood at the scene, it was from someone called Ben Krull. Kara told me he's the one called Reactron. I think you two are heading into a trap and you might not get out of it alive"** Barry told them flat out. They heard him talk to Turpin to let him know what's going on.

 **"We at least need to check the site. This isn't the abandoned factory, Superman is supposed to go tomorrow night, it's just a warehouse outside of town"** He told them

 **"Clark, the ones that are in National City are hold up on a farm. If you go in there you might have big problems or you might not find anything. What do you want to do?"** Kara asked.

 **"We're going. Think we can get some support from Flash and Supergirl, just in case things get hairy?"** he asked.

 **"Yeah. Send us the location"** Barry replied and after a bit a GPS tag appeared on their phones. **"Got it. Meet you there"** The two switched to their suits and went straight to where the ping was, stopping just outside the perimeter of the abandoned place. Turpin and Clark arrived as well.

 **"What are you two doing here?"** Turpin asked seeing the two superheroes waiting for them.

 **"Reconnaissance. We tracked someone here that might be a danger " Flash answered swiftly. "Supergirl, can you get a good look at what's inside?"** Kara took a step forward and both their bracers turned red and blue.

 **"Wonderful. Now this crap is all over the place"** Flash almost spit out the words.

 **"What are those?"** Clark asked very interested.

 **"As you know, Supergirl's weakness is just like the one Superman has. Kryptonite. I built her a sensor which is in her suit that detects that stuff including a few variations. Right now it's detecting Blue Kryptonite"** Flash responded.

 **"The green variety hurts me, the blue one does not, but in its presence I lose my powers. I'm basically a normal human as long as I'm around this stuff. Which explains why it's here. These guys were prepared for Superman"** Supergirl told the other two. Clark made wide eyes at what the two were telling him. He had never encountered the blue sort before and he had no idea of its effects, but these two seemed to know quite a lot about it. He remembered what Barry told him a while back, that he will protect Kara as well as he could so he built her a Kryptonite detector. That made perfect sense.

 **"I'm going to find the rocks, you stay away and scan the structure. If you see anything unusual tell me"** Flash disappeared in a gust of wind. Kara saw him gather all the rocks that he could find and phase them into nothing. She was staying away and assessing the situation. She could not see anything in the darkened warehouse, it had no basement, no attic and it was empty. There were however some automated defenses.

 **"Flash, I can't see anything inside except a few turrets, except I can't see what their ammo is made from, the ammo boxes are shielded with lead"** she told her partner. In a few seconds they were dismantled, their targeting systems not being able to keep up with Barry's insane speed. He came back and held two of the bullets in his hand. They were glowing blue, the outer shell was made out of blue kryptonite and inside there was a green liquid.

 **"These are definitely made to kill the supers. Poison rounds. Now I'm sure this is who we're after"** Flash spoke **"There is nobody inside and not a trace of the car you and detective Turpin followed all the way here. This might be just a meeting site, not the actual base. Which means Ms. Lane was taken somewhere else. I would say by car, since there are tire treads at the back of the building"**

 **"This means we came here for nothing"** Clark said rather bleakly

 **"Sadly, yes. I scanned the whole building and underneath it. There is no gap and no space that would constitute a basement or a hidden floor. This must be just a meeting point, which means we are back at square one right now"** Supergirl said visibly annoyed.

 **"I could stay here and stake out the place, maybe it would help to see who are the persons that actually want to meet in a place like this"** Turpin replied.

 **"Dan, as much as I would like that, if they come back you will be defenseless. While I do appreciate what you`re trying to do for me, I would rather not see you get killed by these people"** Clark spoke to him like he was an old friend. The couple picked up on that.

 **"I still want to help, Clark. This is the only way I can right now. I know how much you care about Lois so I want to do this " Turpin explained his own reasons.**

 **"I'm afraid Mr. Kent is right this time Detective. The people that we were following are not to be trifled with. We have evidence that at least Livewire and Reactron were involved in this organization we're chasing. Furthermore we have no idea if there are other people like them which means you would be in grave danger if they even scoped you to be here"** the Flash said calmly.

 **"If they were your usual human threats, we'd welcome your help, but like he said"** Supergirl pointed at Clark **"No point in putting your life on the line for something that we don't even know if it would yield anything. You two should go back to town. We're going to keep an eye on this building from afar"**

 **"I should get back home. In case the kidnappers call"** Clark tried to excuse himself, the couple knew perfectly why.

 **"I'll take you there faster. Drive safe detective"** Flash grabbed Clark and zipped away. Turpin smiled at Supergirl, got in his car and left just in time for Flash to come back with Superman.

 **"Thanks for that. I didn't know how to get him off my back. Dan is a good guy, but I can't tell him who I am. It would make for a pretty awkward situation"** Superman explained in a few words that Turpin didn't know his real identity.

 **"You at least have your phone with you ? If they call?"** Kara asked.

 **"I do. So what do you two intend to do?"** Kal inquired. He saw Barry zip away and bring a blanket and some food.

 **"We're going to keep an eye on the place until we need to sleep. You`re welcome to join us if you want"** Kara smiled

 **"I would, but these suits attract attention. Maybe we should change into something more comfortable. Nobody would care too much about 3 people having a picnic"** Kal replied. Barry understood what he was saying

 **"He's right, Kara. We can't be here in the suits and not even in ours, we look like government agents from 50 miles away. Good thing I brought some extra clothes along in our bag"** Barry grinned and sped away coming back with the bag that they left at Clark's apartment. He changed both of them in an instant into something less conspicuous. Jeans and t shirt for him, a yellow green summer dress for her. **"There we go"** Kal looked weird at Barry realizing he changed not only himself but Kara as well with his super speed. The speedster gave Clark some jeans and a shirt from his own apartment which he had grabbed when getting their bag. **"Hope these work for you?"**

 **"Yes. Thanks for the change of clothes"** He changed and sat on the blanket as well with the two, keeping an eye on the facility which was quite a ways away. It didn't matter, he and Kara could see quite well from that distance and the place that Barry chose to put the blanket was a hill that offered a perfect view of the whole complex.


	25. Council

A few hours had passed, our heroes got some food and nothing had happened. The warehouse was as empty as ever. Clark was still thinking what Kara had said earlier. He was watching the couple in front of him. Barry was sitting on the blanket with her sitting between his legs. She was leaning on him. His hands were around her and her hands were on his. He thanked god that they decided not to snog in front of him.

 **"Kara, mind if I ask you something?"**

 **"Sure"** she smiled while being held by Barry and watching the sunset.

 **"How did you know about the Blue Kryptonite. I haven't come across that sort of thing before"** He inquired

 **"It was something that popped up on this earth in the timeline that I was from. It's a synthetic form that was initially made by Maxwell Lord"** Barry answered for Kara.

 **"I see. I'm supposing that's why you build the detectors in your suits?"** Kal asked.

 **"Yes. Both our suits have sensors that can detect the substance. The larger the chunk the easier it is to detect. At least until now, they worked well enough to warn us if there were pieces around from a far enough distance so that I wouldn't be affected by it"** Kara replied to the question this time.

 **"I saw the suit last time. The way it changed to focus sunlight? The fact that it changes into a display on your arm. I'm guessing it's not done with technology that exists here"** Clark stated.

 **"No. it's with tech from Barry and Caitlin's universe. Both these suits were made by Cisco. Remember him? The short engineer with wavy hair?"** Barry pointed out.

 **"Ah I see. I wondered if I could get one of those detectors to be honest. For someone like me who's also vulnerable it would be a great help"** Kal said bluntly.

 **"I thought you might want one. That's why I had Wynn build another one. The plans are up here"** Barry pointed at his head.

 **"What did you put it in?"** Kara replied looking at the two

 **"A Watch was good enough to hold a power cell and the sensor itself"** Barry thought out loud" Kara's however has a limited range, because it was initially done to monitor the amount of Kryptonite radiation in her cells. So the outside scanning area is just under 20 or so meters for a medium piece of rock. Since you didn't need that, I made the radius a bit larger. Like maybe ... 40 – 50 meters"

 **"That should be fine. The green one I can sense, since it harms me as it does Kara. But I would like to know if there's red one around or blue one, since those affect us without any sort of pain. Are there any more types I should worry about?"** Superman questioned the speedster

 **"Gold and Black. Gold is like blue. It initially takes your powers away, but if you spend too much time around it, you'll never get them back. Black, well ... that's something more sinister"** He replied.

 **"What do you mean by ... sinister?"** Kal looked at his with a surprised face.

 **"By what Barry has told me, that type on contact splits you into two personalities. A good one and a bad one. The two will always fight it out and whoever wins remains as the dominant person. It's basically the usual fight between good and evil that goes on inside every human. Except, if the evil one wins, well imagine evil Superman, then tell me how good that is"** Kara replied cuddling into Barry's arms.

 **"Describing that as bad would be an understatement"** he replied

 **"Precisely. That's why I had that done for Kara, if she sees that it's better that she stays away. I'm not affected by the stuff so I can always make it disappear"** Barry replied.

 **"The perks of having a speedster boyfriend. He can make anything poof into nothingness, just like he did with the hull of the Venture that time"** Kara smiled brightly at her cousin. **"How come you thought ahead and made two of them ?"**

 **"Like that's hard to figure out, Kara. There are only two people on this planet that are sensitive to that crap. You and him. Of course I'd make two of them. It was a bit of a pain in the ass since when I asked Winn to make the second one I had to redraw the plans and modify them to not work the same, but heh. Totally worth it"** The speedster smiled

 **"Why do you not have the plans on hardcopy somewhere. If anything happens to you that technology is gone"** Clark asked seriously

 **"If that happens then so be it. If anyone reverses those sensors that can see into Kara's cells and monitor her energy output and all the other stuff. I'm betting my speed that they can come up with something to harm her. Sorry, but no. Those plans stay, in here, where I know I can take care of them"** Barry told him with a very serious face. Clark was not surprised by that answer. Barry had shown on several occasions that he would do anything to protect Kara. This was just another way that he was keeping that promise.

 **"I see. Then I guess that secret will die with you. When did you have that made for me anyway ?"** Kal asked him

 **"It was after you came to National City and got shot at. I realized that if the bullets were kryptonite, we would know instantly, but you might have gotten killed if you couldn't detect it. So, I redrew the plans, modified them and helped Winn build another sensor"** Barry said nonchalantly

 **"When did you have time to do that. We were together most of the time"** Kara replied surprised.

 **"Fastest man alive? I drew up the plans and made the calculations while you were taking a shower. The next day I took them to Winn and during the course of a few days he had it done. All I had to do is come by and see if he needed help and when he did I gave it to him. He also made sure that the plans were again, destroyed"** Barry chuckled.

 **"Thank you for thinking about Kal as well " Kara just kissed him and the one that was mentioned gave them a large smirk.**

 **"Remember what I told you about family, Kara? Kal is yours" Barry told her.**

 **"Which in turn makes him yours as well. I know. Still thank you"** She replied back making Clark look at them with a confused face

 **"Did you two get married while I was gone or something?"** he chuckled.

 **"No. It's something we discussed a while back. Don't worry about it. Besides, how would we NOT invite you to our wedding, come on Clark, get with the program. You`re my only blood family on earth" the blonde replied to her cousin.**

 **"You can come pick up the watch whenever you`re in National City, Kal. Don't worry it's in a safe place, unless someone can phase, they can't get to it"** Barry gave him a winning smile.

 **"Barry Allen, where did you put it?"** Kara laughed looking at him

 **"Remember that large crater you made in the wall in your house by accident, while we were training? Well I put bricks over it, but behind it there was still a space. So, I phased it through and left it there. Best safe ever, one that you don't know exists"** The speedster smiled at his beautiful girlfriend.

 **"Well, what can I say. Thank you for thinking about helping me as well"** Clark told him and extended a hand which the speedster shook.

 **"No problem. You`re welcome"** the reply came. The three continued their talking, but kept the volume of their voices down. The night had fallen and Barry and Kara put back their suits which were a bit harder to spot at night. It was nearly midnight and the three heroes decided they should leave, when Clark noticed that there was movement in front of the warehouse.

 **"They`re here"** He said and Kara concentrated her vision as well to watch what was happening.

 **"What is this, the convention of Superhero Haters?"** Kara whispered **"There's Livewire, Banshee, Reactron and last but not least, our old buddy Metallo. Wait am I seeing this right ? Are there two of them ?"** Kara looked again

 **"Yeah. There are two people with Kryptonite chest implants. I recognize Corben from the papers, the other one I don't know him"** Clark voiced his suspicions.

 **"This is strange. I know for a fact that CADMUS hates aliens and metahumans. What are livewire and banshee doing here"** Barry voiced his thoughts.

 **"Well this is great. Reactron no longer has a fusion reactor on his chest. He's powered by Kryptonite too. These guys are really out to get you, cousin. Tomorrow night I bet they will all gang up on you"** Kara said quite worried.

 **"I think I know what's up. Livewire still has a beef with Supergirl and by extension any of her family. I think those two simply are the mercenaries in this. I'm surprised, I'm pretty sure that CADMUS will turn on them and kill them as well. "Barry commented with a low voice.**

 **"What the …"** Kara almost lost it **"Barry, Winn's dad is here too"**

 **"You`re telling me that the guy we just put in Jail has already escaped ?"** Barry face palmed.

 **"Yeah. I am. Kal, we have a problem. These are too many for us to take on, even if we are three of us"** Kara said with a blank face. **"Can you hear what they're saying?"**

 **"No, they went inside, walls are leaded and apparently the inside is sound proof as well. I can't hear a peep. What should we do?"** He asked.

 **"Let's sleep this off till the morning. But I think it might be high time we bring in a bit of backup ourselves"** Barry added. They trio left, not wanting to attract attention they ran instead of flying. After a while they reached, Clark's apartment.

 **"Only have a couch so… will you two be ok?"** He looked at the couple.

 **"Yeah. We'll manage even if we have to sleep on the floor. Don't worry about it. So what you said earlier, are you thinking about what I think you`re thinking ?"** Kara looked at the speedster.

 **"Yes. I think it might be time we bring two other speedsters in on this"** The reply came.

 **"You want to call Barry and Caitlin?"** Kal asked.

 **"Yeah. The others can come as well, the more the merrier"** Kara replied.

 **"Let's get some rest, we'll call them in the morning and see what happens. Remember, they have a child now, they might be way too busy to come here to help."** Barry spoke

 **"Think they'll come ?"** Superman asked pretty bluntly **"I know they're your friends but they don't really know me. Also the fact that you just said they have a newborn, which might throw a wrench into whatever you two are thinking"**

 **"We know them. Unless they have something really bad on their own side, they'll be here to help. Oh, and if they can find a babysitter as well"** Kara said **"Good night, Kal"**

 **"Good night"** Clark went back to his room while Barry and Kara, who got out of their clothes and into some t-shirts and shorts that would double as pajamas, struggled to find a good position to sleep on the couch. They finally managed to find something acceptable and fell asleep themselves.

The next morning when Clark woke up and came back to the living area what he was very interesting... Barry was sleeping on the couch with one hand around Kara. She in turn had her head on his chest and one leg over his, but most of her body was not on the couch itself, but it was floating in the empty space between the couch and the table. Clark thought it funny to take a picture and left them to sleep while getting to the kitchen to make some coffee. After a few minutes the smell of coffee had seeped into the room making the two wake up. Barry was first to awaken, he looked at his girlfriend sleeping off the couch floating like it was something normal. He moved and drew her in so if she awakes she wouldn't fall. He was right, the moment she woke up she plopped on the bed.

 **"Good morning. You know you slept off the couch for a good part of the night, right?"** Barry smiled at her

 **"Not really. Did I?"** she asked with wide eyes.

 **"Yes, you did " Clark brought them two coffees and one for himself taking out his phone with the picture of Kara floating.**

 **"I want that"** Barry smiled. **"She looks so cute when she sleeps"** he said making Kara blush.

 **"So what do you guys want to do?"** Clark asked seriously. Barry looked at the time. It wasn't that early so he decided to call himself from the other universe.

 **"Hey, Barry"** A sweet voice came from the other side of the line.

 **"Morning Caitlin. Sorry to call so early, but we might need your help with something"** He told her. They could hear the phone being put on speaker.

 **"I'm guessing it's something pretty big. You do know two of the strongest people in that universe, so that's saying something"** the other Barry told them

 **"Yeah. Something we haven't told you, Clark has a girlfriend"** Kara started

 **"By the tone in your voice, Kara I don't think you called us to come to a wedding"** Caitlin replied.

 **"No. She has been taken and the kidnappers sent a note to Clark, Superman has to be somewhere at midnight tonight or she dies. Yesterday we found some evidence that lead us to a meeting place outside town and we stalked it out for a bit. It appears that quite a variety of criminals are preparing to be part of this attack, they really want to kill him"** Kara explained

 **"The problem with that is, that some of them are powered by Kryptonite. Which means serious trouble for Kara and Clark. While I might be way faster than anything on this planet at this time, I don't think I can take them myself. I would rather, my girlfriend and her cousin don't get killed"** Barry said to his double and his wife.

 **"That shouldn't be a problem. Are you still in National City?"** Caitlin asked.

 **"No. We're in Metropolis. I would suggest to see if Cisco can open a breach straight here. It would take you a while to get here " Barry replied.**

 **"Mind if I take your Menace costume out for a spin? That world already has a Flash. It would be a bit strange if all of a sudden two appears"** The other Barry asked.

 **"Sure, if you want to. But I don't really see the point. It's more than likely that only those people will be there"** Barry replied.

 **"Sweetie, it's possible that there will be people watching from afar. Even snipers like the last time with Kryptonite bullets. Let him come as Menace, that way we confuse the others about where all these superheroes suddenly popped up"** Kara voiced her thoughts and heard a chuckle from the other side of the line.

 **"Ok. Then that's settled. We'll talk to Oliver, see if he can make it and then jump over. We'll also see if Henry or Joe wants to spend a little time with their grandson. Cisco will open a portal at your location so don't stand near a wall"** young Barry chuckled and closed the line. Kara grabbed her phone and called the DEO as well.

 **"Morning, is Hank there by any chance?"** Kara asked her sister.

 **"Yeah. He's in his office. Why?"** she asked.

 **"I need to talk to him"** the blonde said and after a few minutes a voice came from the phone.

 **"What is it?"** he asked.

 **"We found out about a plot to kill Superman. We might need your help. There are a lot of people with Kryptonite based weapons here that can kill him and me. We already sent for backup from the other universe, but having you here can only help. If you have time"** Kara replied.

 **"Also, did Winn ever manage to fix the second Kryptonite shield? WE might need two of those as well"** Barry asked.

 **"Yeah, I have two of those standing by"** his voice was heard from the phone **"I'll bring them. See you in a few hours. I don't run nearly as fast as Barry so it will take me a while to fly across the country"** Hank told them and closed the line. Clark was pleasantly surprised at the people that were ready to help if these two were in trouble.

 **"So who do we have?"** he asked.

 **"Me and myself from the other universe, Kara and Caitlin, Oliver and J`onn"** Barry voiced

 **"Isn't Oliver human?"** Clark asked pretty surprised **"He'll be in grave danger in that pool of super powered criminals"**

 **"He can take care of himself. He has experience with metahuman threats. Besides, his strength doesn't rest in his powers, but in his mind, he is a superb tactician"** Barry explained and he was gone for a couple of minutes. He came back with pizzas, donuts, pot stickers and other assorted sweets. He knew that the speedster couple from the other universe would need a lot of food to keep their energy up.

After a couple of hours, while the two were watching TV, because they had nothing else better to do and Clark was writing an article from home, excusing himself from Perry White, telling him he has a flu and it's better to not come and get sick all the editorial staff, a blue portal opened in the middle of Clark's apartment and three people stepped out of it. Oliver making a bee line for the bathroom. Younger Barry had the Menace suit on, which had its shield changed into a variant of the shield he used. Caitlin had her Frost outfit on but not transformed yet.

 **"We're here"** Caitlin smiled **"But where is, here"**

 **"Welcome. This is Clark's apartment"** Kara stood up and went to give a hug to the two that were still there when the portal opened.

 **"Hey, Clark. Nice to see you again"** Younger Barry waved at the man who was writing at the table and who returned the greeting.

 **"We're fine on the baby front. Henry and Tina decided to play babysitter. I was surprised at how fast Tina took to the little guy. So, can you tell us more about who we're supposed to be facing?"** Caitlin asked

 **"I keep saying that I'll never do that again and I never learn"** Oliver came out of the bathroom with a slightly green face.

 **"Shush. I know you'll always come and help if we need it"** Kara smiled at the archer.

 **"Pretty much why I never learn"** He grinned at the blonde.

 **"Let's wait for J`onn to get here and we can put all of you up to speed. Which reminds me. Oliver do you still know Constantine?"** Older Barry asked the archer.

 **"Yeah. Master of the dark arts and knowledgeable about magic. That one?"** Oliver replied.

 **"Him. Yes. We found someone that might be using magic in this universe, he touches people, sucks their life out of them and the victims turn to zombies. We might need his help in the future"** Older Barry replied.

 **"I can reach him when it's necessary. So that's not a problem. When something magic related happens I always get his expertise, besides, we had a sort of demonic threat back in Central city and he helped us along with Zatanna, something about some mage wanting to summon a demon to make a pact with him"** The archer told the group. Clark was looking a bit askew at the grown persons that were talking like magic was real. Kara did tell him about Oliver's problems, but he always took them lightly.

 **"Yeah, Tar Snow and rains of blood. Those are never good omens no matter where you are"** Younger Barry voiced and Superman saw that he was being serious about what he has said to the point where he had no more doubt that magic was indeed, real.

J`onn arrived about half an hour later, the speedsters had already begun eating the food that was provided to get their energy level up and the four were chatting like usual when they met. The alien had brought the two shields that Winn had rebuilt as well. Older Barry sat on the couch with Kara in his lap and Younger Barry right beside him with Caitlin in his lap. Clark looked at both of them and snickered.

 **"Now that we're all gathered, Time we fill you all in on what we saw last night"** Kara started to speak **"We don't know yet if all those villains are going to be tonight at the meeting place, but we called you all here because we had to take precautions"**

 **"First large problem that we saw was the fact that for some reason or another Corben is back. He has a new heart, but that's not even the worst part. There are two of him now. A second person who has a kryptonite heart as well and seem to have the same device on his chest as Corben"** Older Barry started

 **"Second large problem would be Reactron. He's back as well, only this time instead of a fusion reactor for a power cell, he uses Kryptonite too" Clark said from a chair**

 **"Third problem, our old friends Leslie and Siobhan seem to have joined the club as well and last but not least, Toyman, which somehow apparently managed to escape from Jail. Which is surprising since we didn't hear anything about that"** Kara spoke.

 **"So, we have … toys that can kill, three people that can shoot Kryptonite blasts, which in large number can be fatal to either me or Kara, someone who can literally burn you by electrocution and a shrieker that can confuse you and cause some pretty bad ear damage to boot " Clark said with a grimace on his face.**

 **"I'll take care of the toy person"** Oliver spoke from the side **"He seems the only threat that is anywhere near my abilities. What can he do ?"**

 **"He's a master of traps, a genius at mechanics, kind of like Winn and most of his toys are deadly. From a simple ball that can rip through you if it gets enough acceleration, to a deadly disease in the form of Play Doh. This guy has everything to be careful about him. He also has a tactical mind, so I advise you be mindful of your surroundings as well on any sort of access route you take to get to him, Oliver"** Older Barry told him.

 **"Got it. Since he's human I suspect he might be away from the fight, not in the middle of it. Do you have any way of detecting his location?"** the archer asked.

 **"No, but we can scan the area and tell you where to go if needed. Just hope he isn't in a lead bunker underground. That would be a bit … annoying"** Kara replied.

 **"Are the ones that can throw Kryptonite blasts still human to some degree?"** Caitlin asked bluntly

 **"I'm pretty much sure Metallo is a robot by now. The other one I don't know and Reactron is a mutated human. But he still has his suit. Why?"** Kara replied to her and then she remembered **"Ah, I see. Paralytic fog"** Caitlin grinned and nodded.

 **"Paralytic fog?"** J`onn asked with surprise.

 **"She can produce a fog that paralyzes. We should stay away from it where possible, I'm pretty sure it can affect all of us here to varying degrees except her"** Kara added.

 **"I'm sure it affects speedsters, so me and myself have to stay out of it. Oliver knows to stay away because it completely stops normal humans in their tracks. She already used it on Siobhan, so we know it works on her. The rest, we don't know yet, but we're sure it doesn't work on technology, since we have tried it before on some robotic bees and those weren't affected in the slightest"** Younger Barry added.

 **"We'll leave Toyman to Oliver then. Siobhan can be taken out of the battle by the fog. What about the three kryptonite powered cyborgs?"** Clark inquired.

 **"Well, the first time I stopped Metallo, I phased my hand through him and removed the piece of kryptonite that powered him. But he has an EM field around that which rendered my hand unusable for 12 hours because of issues with reintegration after phasing. So in a bind, me and Barry can do that"** Older Barry replied.

 **"We can probably try some other tricks. I'm pretty sure metals don't really react well to sub-freezing temperatures"** Catlin snickered.

 **"That leaves Reactron. While those blasts are Kryptonite powered, they are still nuclear. Which means they can melt anyone that is hit by them. Except me and Kara. But with the added green in there, they can hurt us pretty bad"** Clark spoke.

 **"I propose we do this. We use the shields on you two to take care of the two Metallo. Reactron we somehow keep at bay for the fight and when we're done with the robots we take him on. Since we can't really touch him, we will have to use other means to destroy him"** J`onn entered the conversation.

 **"We can touch him. His suit syphons the radiation he puts out. But we still can't get near him"** Kara replied.

 **"Supersonic punch then?"** Older Barry looked at his younger self.

 **"That seems to be the best option. Unless you have some other trick up your sleeve"** the reply came.

 **"Well I could just phase him into nothingness. That can work too"** Older Barry replied nonchalantly

 **"We have to add the possibility that there will be humans standing by with Kryptonite bullets. There were always those people whenever we had issues that tried to kills us"** Kara brought up a good point.

 **"We can catch the bullets. But thanks for the heads up, we'll know what to watch out for. Also I'm pretty sure my ice armor can stand up to nuclear blasts. We have someone that can put out those to a degree and they have never affected me"** Caitlin replied. Kara, Clark and J`onn looked at her quizzically prompting Oliver to jump into the conversation

 **"Her armor is so cold that can literally absorb heat. Also the fact that it covers her and has the hardness comparable to diamond is the reason that she can be completely invulnerable if she wants to. Kind of like you two"** He explained

 **"I would suggest something like this. They will be already entrenched in the positions they have. J`onn should go in as Superman. I doubt they would know the difference between you and him. You should be fully phased, if there are snipers they will take their shots almost immediately, giving away their positions. When they do, Me, Barry and Caitlin will take them out. After that we just wing it, because there might not even be all the people that we saw at that meeting there, or there might be even more. It's not like Superman doesn't have enough enemies"** Older Barry spoke prompting a raised eyebrow from the archer that was listening.

 **"So 8 years taught you finally not to go in halfcocked and empty handed into burning buildings?"** he commented making younger Barry roll his eyes.

 **"Oh it taught me more than that, Oliver. But the tactical mind I have now is mostly because of you. So? How's that for a plan?"** the speedster asked again.

 **"Sounds good to me " Clark told them. Everyone agreed. As they were talking a large blue vortex opened in front of the table and Cisco, wearing his Vibe suit complete with glasses and gauntlets stepped out of it.**

 **"Hey. So, I heard that you were going against people that might be shooting that green crap at you, so … I decided to make you a new suit. It was something I was working on for a while, in cooperation with the old man here " he pointed at Older Barry. He put out his hand and gave Kara another necklace. "Disclaimer. It's different than the one you`re wearing. But its form has a purpose, so no picking on the Cisco. Try it on"** the engineer smiled.

Kara went to the other room and when she came back everyone's eyes were on her. The new suit was indeed different, it was the same shade of blue that her normal suit was with a red smaller shield on the chest which had a different look than the one she was currently wearing. Its main distinction was that the house of El coat of arms, had a yellow lightning bolt in the back that was going through it. It didn't have a skirt anymore, but pants that covered her legs completely and the same blue boots but now complete with red streaks on them. The belt was different too. It was a bit bulkier and wider and the same shade of blue as her suit. The red color was different than what she had previously worn, it was the same as the Flash suit. The difference was that it had a cowl with a mask, the same type she had worn when she was in the other universe helping them. The cape was still there, dawning the same red color as Barry's suit. Kara looked strangely at the engineer.

 **"Before you go all fashion police on me, I should explain why this suit is different. After the last time Barry came back brought us a sample of the substance that could harm you, we have been keeping in contact to see if we can find something that might neutralize it. We managed to perfect a type of fabric that is sheer proof and penetration proof. In your case, the power cells that are in the belt which by now you already noticed that its larger than your normal suit, will direct the nanites in the fabric to absorb specific types of radiation on contact. Someone shoots you, the fabric hardens, the nanites absorb the radiation from the Kryptonite and voila. You don't have to worry about stuff like that anymore, at least until the power cells deplete. The costume is more like Barry's now because you need protection on your legs as well, the cowl is detachable and serves the same purpose. The mask will absorb some of the radiation and distribute it around the suit if you get a blast to the face as well. While it doesn't provide the same amount of protection, it should still be enough to not affect you completely. As for the shield, it looks the same like we talked that day when you dropped by for a dip in the pool. The batteries will indeed wear out at some point, but Barry can just take them and run with them, or can charge them with a lightning bolt"** The engineer finished leaving a wide eyed Kara and Clark looking at him. **"Of course this doesn't mean you have to wear this suit all the time. But it would be preferable that you do in the eventuality that, like now, you`re going against people that you know for sure have Kryptonite in their possession. Also, since your other suit had the same detachable shield like this one has, you can simply switch them around with no problem. Both have the same tech inside them"**

 **"Oh, Rao! Thank you so much. While the design is … different. After what you said, it makes perfect sense to use it like this " Kara smiled brightly at the engineer, turning to her Barry "So this is what you`ve been working on when you said you want make me something that will help me against the green rocks"**

 **"Pretty much. I would have probably been able to make it myself, but I would have to make the technology as well, which as you know this world is a bit … behind on. SO I just decided to talk to Cisco and get it done as a joint effort " Older Barry smiled.**

 **"Thank you"** She just jumped on him giving him a kiss. Clark turned his head while the rest of the room was smirking widely. **_"You really think about how best to protect me and keep me out of trouble. I love you so much"_** she said in her thoughts. When they broke the kiss Barry had a frozen face. The others picked up on it too **"What?"** she asked him.

 **"I heard that. I love you too"** He said prompting a shocked look from her as well.

 **"Wait. You can hear me?"** she asked him.

 **"Apparently so and not just that, I can feel what you`re feeling with clarity. You`re stupidly happy right now and well ... in love. But that's not a surprise"** the answer came.

 **"I see. So this indeed has happened. I kept feeling stuff off of you but I didn't want to say anything. Apparently we are indeed meant for each other. Which is surprising, since your younger self has someone else"** She replied.

 **"You know how Kryptonian bonds work. It's the person. I am my own person, I'm not Barry who has Caitlin. It forms between two people that are in love and what you would call, in sync"** Barry replied.

 **"So you knew about this? How?"** Kara asked.

 **"More data from the Fortress. Besides, I think it kind of started to happen with my Kara, but then something went wrong and it disappeared. I can't really be sure about that because the memories are fuzzy. Maybe because she became cold, I don't know. But yes I know what this is"** Barry replied kissing her again. He could feel the love and the happiness coming off her and she could feel his as well. Cisco looked at them and scoffed.

 **"Great, more people that can talk in their heads. RUDE"** He sat on a chair prompting weird looks from Oliver. **"What? I know that anywhere, these two do it all the time"** he pointed at younger Barry and Caitlin.

 **"I know that they do, Cisco"** Oliver commented **"But those two have been struck by lightning. Menace and Kara have not. SO how can they do that?"**

 **"I can answer that question"** Clark got up from the chair. **"Kryptonians have something similar. It's a bond that forms between two people that fall in love and somehow are in sync. I don't know how it happened, because I know for a fact that it shouldn't work completely between a human and a Kryptonian. The legends say that one Kryptonian can only find one person that he can have a bond with. You would call it a soulmate, but I don't think the concept applies. I don't know much more about it to tell you except that it is possible and it seems that these two have achieved that state"**

 **"I guess congratulations are in order then. When should we expect the wedding?"** Caitlin grinned at the two who went full on red in the face.

 **"Don't call us, we'll call you. Not like he asked"** Kara replied chuckling and older Barry nodded but the surprise on his face was visible. **"We should get ready, it's nearly evening"** She closed the subject quite quickly reminding them that there was a threat looming and the last thing that needed to be discussed now was their love life.


	26. Rescue

**"Darkness falls across the land. The midnight hour's close at hand"** Younger Barry recited, making Caitlin and Kara burst into laughter. Older Barry almost face palmed but chuckled. **"What? Best way to make the best of a shitty situation is to joke. Have you met me already?"** he smiled.

 **"It's almost midnight. We should get going. I don't think we want to be late"** Clark changed into his Superman suit.

 **"I'm going ahead"** the Martian replied morphing into Superman himself. The two Kryptonians grabbed the shields and they all headed out. At midnight a transformed J'onn was standing in the courtyard of the Abandoned factory as it was written in the note received by Clark Kent. A shadowy figure stepped out of the darkness with a Kryptonite knife holding it at the throat of Lois Lane. Superman and Supergirl both a ways away so not to be seen scanned the face and were not surprised by what they saw. It was Lillian Luthor. The woman had supposedly been dead for a while, or so they thought.

 **"Welcome, Superman. I would start with the introductions but there are some people who would really like you dead. So, how about you be a good boy scout and die for me"** the voice said. In the next second, three bullets and two Kryptonite blasts passed through the Martian who was smirking. Older Barry was already running like a bat out of hell, he managed just in time to phase Lois out of Lillian's arm before the knife cut the place where her throat was a second ago. She was unconscious so before anything, the speedster raced back to Clark's apartment and deposited her on the couch returning to the site of the battle.

 **"You don't think Superman would have fallen for something that was so obvious of a trap. But since Lois is now safe, how about we take care of business"** The Martian turned back into his own form and flew straight at one of the Metallos that stepped in to the courtyard from the shadows. Superman and Supergirl were out, shields forward attacking Corben which had started to throw Kryptonite blasts himself. Reactron came out second, from behind the supers, two radiation blasts flying at them which were stopped immediately by a triple layered ice wall. Frost joined the fight smiling at Kara who nodded her head in thanks. The two Flashes and she had already cleared the area of the snipers that posed a threat with their bullets.

 **"So you`ve brought friends. Good, more people to kill"** Livewire and Banshee joined the fight, but for some reason both of them focused their fire on Kara more than on her cousin. While J'onn was fighting Corben and Superman with the Kryptonite shield was battling the other Metallo, Kara found herself caught in the Crossfire, being attacked by those two as well. Frost didn't really sit and think, after the first yell a cloud of blue fog enveloped Banshee, just like the first time they had dealt with her, effectively taking her out of the battle. Leslie however was another problem. She kept throwing electrical attack at the blonde and she got really pissed when her apparent friend got sidelined so easy.

Frost iced up, it was the first time older Barry and Kara had seen this new form she had and in the middle of the battle the two stopped to gawk at her. That proved to be a bit of a strategical error, Corben managed to let out two kryptonite blasts that were heading straight for Kara. Older Barry stepped in front of them and the impact threw him into a pile of scrap metal. He managed to get out but he had a pipe stuck in his arm which went straight through. Thankfully it didn't hit bone. He winced and pulled it out. Frost saw that and produced a cloud of red fog with silver tint that was moving straight at Kara.

 **"Get in the cloud. You'll see why, both of you"** she yelled going back to attacking Livewire keeping her busy while the cloud hit the couple. It dissipated in a few seconds but Kara felt better instantly and the hole he had on his arm was completely healed.

 **"Now she can heal people too. We really need to get the 411 on her new powers"** Kara looked at her speedster who nodded.

Leslie wanted to move through wires to get back to them but she didn't pay attention to see the younger Barry that was racing toward her. The punch hit her point blank with a force that sent her flying into the legs of what looked like a water tower. Kara took that opportunity to melt the bottom of the reservoir to see if there was any water in it and she was in luck, a torrent of water mixed with rust started to flow over livewire literally shorting her. Frost didn't lose any time and encased her in a block of ice for safe keeping and transport later.

 **"You don't think that you people are the only ones that can come together. We have friends too and these people will do anything to take scum like you off the streets"** Superman hit Corben so hard that he flew a couple of feet but rebounded almost instantly and came back at him.

J'onn was keeping Reactron at bay as well as he could. But he could not let the blasts that he was putting out hit him under any circumstances. They would have wounded him since they were nuclear in nature. So he phased while avoiding one of them, while passing through him it hit Frost who was behind him helping Older Barry take care of the other Metallo. The blast should have harmed her pretty badly since she took it head on. Instead she turned around unharmed and threw two ice spears at Reactron.

 **"Hey, keep your blasts to yourself"** she yelled while returning to her own fight. J'onn was impressed, the thick armor she had on her didn't seem to have suffered any kind of damage even from a blast that was extremely hot. In their battle none of the heroes noticed the array of toy airplanes and soldiers including some interesting hyper elastic balls that were being dropped as bombs. Oliver however saw from a distance that they were coming.

 **"Be careful, there are toys incoming"** he yelled. The heroes clumped together and Frost made an Ice umbrella which managed to keep the strange balls at bay. The toys however were loaded with the same Kryptonite bullets and piece of the green rock that they started dropping. The strain was becoming obvious on Superman. He was backing away from Corben only defending but not attacking. Kara was not feeling well. The power meter in her suit started flashing yellow because of the exposure even with the new suit on.

 **"We need to get these rocks out of here"** Younger Barry said with a sense of urgency

 **"You remember how to phase, right?"** Older Barry asked him and he nodded

 **"Yep, back from the time with the tanks when you came to help. You want to get rid of the toys don't you?"** Younger him inquired, he nodded and the two started a mad race around the compound phasing all the pieces of green rock away. The balls were a problem, they weren't just balls they were remotely controlled from somewhere, they changed their trajectory in mid-flight and the kinetic energy they had in them was enormous. Two of them hit Frost causing her to fall to the ground in pain.

 **"Frost you ok?"** Kara asked.

 **"Impact dazed me. They didn't manage to go through my ice armor, so I'm perfectly good to fight"** Caitlin replied prompting a look of admiration from Kara. She took two direct hits that would have straight passed through a normal human and she was barely dazed. At the sight of Kara weakened and Caitlin being hit as well Older Barry got extremely annoyed. He started to drain the kinetic energy of everything around him. The balls, with as much speed as they had, if they came into the area they simply fell to the ground dead. With the newly acquired energy, Older Barry took some ground and accelerated to Mach 20 hitting the second Metallo with a punch so powerful that it made a crater under him. Making him fall. Frost didn't have a good angle to hit him so amazing everyone around her except her husband she sprouted wings and flew straight up. When the line of sight was better she started to make another ice spear, larger and thicker this time which she threw at the fallen man. The spike went straight through the kryptonite in his body shattering it and coming out the other side

 **"Nice!"** Kara smirked at her **"1 for the ice princess, 0 for the bad guys. Also since when can you fly?!"** She inquired but saw Caitlin's eyes that said clearly **_"I'll tell you later",_** so she got up but her bracer was still flashing yellow and after being hit by a stray blast from Corben, she went straight from yellow to red. Older Barry didn't sit by, he started to concentrate his energy into a large bolt which he threw at his girlfriend. IT was more than enough, her bracer jumped to 80%, became green and the display disappeared.

 ** _"Thank you"_** she smiled brightly at the speedster as she was revigorated. She started to fly in at supersonic speed and punch Reactron, helping J`onn with the nuclear menace, baiting his blasts but making sure none of them hit her.

 **"No problem. In case you need more charge say something. With the speed needed to keep the field clear of stupid Kryptonite rocks, bullets and toys I can't check the bracers as much as I could"** Older Barry told her and she nodded.

The Toys were becoming a problem. Oliver managed to down most of the planes with his arrows and the flashes managed to destroy some soldiers, but for some reason no matter how many they destroyed, it seemed like there was the same number in the air and on the ground. Frost was now in the air taking down the airplanes with precise hits that impressed the archer. She soon got annoyed and created a few dozen ice spikes that left travelling horizontally and destroying a large portion of the kryptonite laden planes. Kara was looking at her work and she was thoroughly impressed at the extent of the control she had over her powers.

 **"Kara, can you scan the building see if someone is staying away from the fight?"** Oliver asked through the comms that were all now tied into one another.

 **"Yea. Give me a minute"** She went straight up and looked down into the building from a safe distance. What she didn't see were the two toy planes that were coming up behind her. They shot a couple of bullets straight at her before two lightning bolts from the ground took them out.

 ** _"Be careful. I know you might be armored now, but don't let yourself be surprised by stuff like that. You can beat Alex and Hank at hand to hand, surprise attacks should be a problem for someone who is as skilled as you are"_** she could hear older Barry in her head. She looked down and there he was looking at her.

 ** _"Minor mistake. I did see the planes but I was concentrating on helping Oliver. If he manages to take out Toyman this would be much easier"_** she gave him a smile and saw him speed away starting another running punch to go intro Reactron. **"Oliver, there is someone on the lower floor of the factory, in what looks like an office. I don't know how you can get in, for some reason it has walls on all sides. Might be some sort of hideout. Here. I'll show you where"** The girl of steel let out a beam of heat vision which lit up the night showing the archer where he should go. Immediately planes started to go for her, she had given up her exact position, but that wasn't a problem. The moment she did that she went straight back to the ground where Frost was giving Superman a hand with Corben.

 **"Got it. Going to check"** The answer came and her superior vision saw Oliver enter the building. She followed him as he went through seeing if there weren't any dangers. Of course there were, Toyman was a master of mechanical traps. She sped away just in time and went through the wall in front of Oliver rustling up a cloud of dust, just in time for three circles that looked like buzz saw wheels to hit her and fall down in pieces. The archer had stepped aside but she couldn't be sure that he wouldn't be hit.

 **"Oliver, remember tactical thinking. Don't rush in here, this guy is a mad genius with a passion for traps and mechanics. While toys are the attacks he loves to use, his real strength is in the part where he plans to capture you if you go after him. Please be more careful"** she said with a stern voice. The archer was surprised that she cared that much about what would happen to him.

 **"Thank you for that, I was expecting lasers and kryptonite, not Buzz saw blades. It does seem weird that he would put such a rudimentary trap when it doesn't even scratch you. Nonetheless, since now I know what I'm dealing with, I'll be more mindful of my surroundings"** He gave her a grin and a nod. Supergirl flew back outside to help her cousin. Both Barrys were handling the toys. One was throwing lightning bolts at the planes in the sky, the other was breaking the toy soldiers on the ground. A bunch of them however managed to make it in the vicinity or Superman and fired shots at him. The man of steel reacted too late but before the shots actually hit him, older Barry stood back to back with him and in front of the speedster an ice wall had been put up simply stopping the other bullets in their tracks. He turned around holding 3 Kryptonite bullets which he phased into oblivion. One did manage to get through just grazing Clark but creating a large gash on his arm that didn't seem to heal because he was in the presence of Kryptonite. Frost saw that and blew another cloud of red mist at the man of steel.

 **"Thanks. I wasn't fast enough to react to all of those at once"** Superman thanked him while parrying a hit from Corben.

 **"You`re welcome. Thankfully I am fast enough. Get into the cloud, it will heal that arm wound"** Kal did as he was told letting Corben advance while he was retreating into the mist. After a few seconds the cloud dissipated and the gash on his arm was gone. He smiled visibly impressed. The speedster grinned and flashed away, to help his girlfriend who was now fighting Banshee. The impacts and the explosions managed to dissipate the fog that was keeping her prisoner so she came back to the battle with a vengeance. Her yell disoriented everyone that was fighting, enough to have Reactron throw some fire balls in the direction of said yell. One was stopped instantly by an ice wall, but the second was heading straight for Kara. Older Barry picked up the other shield and blocked the hit, but it melted through the shield and hit him in the arm as it was redirected provoking a large burn on his skin. Half the suit was gone and His hand was bleeding profusely where id didn't scorch.

 **"God damn it"** he cursed while J'onn managed to steer the blasts away from the rest of the fight. The Martian had been doing a marvelous job in keeping the nuclear blasts away from the others while they were fighting. He was taunting Reactron into hitting him and the man was so angry that he forgot where the actual battle was.

 **"That looks bad"** Supergirl looked at the wound **"Thank you for the save"**

 **"No problem. It's not that bad, but it hurts like all hell"** He commented starting to vibrate. The wound was fixed in no time but he could feel himself running out of energy **"And I'm starting to run out of energy"** The other Barry heard him and stopped near him giving him two strange looking bars.

 **"Eat these, they will return some of your strength"** He told him and flashed away to help Caitlin who was now in the process of trying to skewered Metallo with ice spears. While that would seem pointless, some of her attacks actually made pretty large dents in the robot's outer housing. Older Barry did what he was told surprised at the fact that they tasted like chocolate, finding out that his younger self was right. He could feel that his hunger had left him and he felt his strength returning.

 **"Supergirl, try to get banshee to scream toward me. I have a surprise for her"** Older Barry looked at his girlfriend who was flying around trying to keep her screams away from the others. She nodded and he started to vibrate his hands in front of him creating something that looked like a concave shield. She stood right in front of it and when Siobhan screamed she stepped aside. The scream was reflected and amplified by whatever her Barry had put up throwing her into a wall and completely disabling her.

 **"Nice work, Supergirl"** he smirked at her

 ** _"Not that shabby yourself. You reflected the sound back at her"_** She gave him a hi five and both went back to help. Kara stepped in attacking Corben from the back and Barry started to punch Reactron again.

Oliver kept going in deeper and deeper in the factory coming up to the place what Supergirl had told him that had no entrance. He asked her to confirm that was the place and she did. He tried to shoot a couple of explosive arrows at the walls, but they had no effect. He went around the so called room and found no way in or out.

 **"Can anyone who has a bit of spare time can come and break down this wall for me?"** He asked through the comms.

 **"Stand back. I'm on my way"** Older Barry replied and at the moment he found some cover a flash of lightning came and hit the wall directly creating a hole with the impact of a punch. He smiled at the archer and went back outside. Oliver continued into the room only to find out that it was devoid of anything except one console at the other end. He shot an explosive arrow at it only for it to be shot down by some lasers that came out of the walls. **_"Great, Laser self-defense grid and the guy isn't even here"_** He tried a few more times with no success. The defense system shot down all the arrows he threw at it. He decided to take a different approach. He took out a smoke arrow and shot it in the middle of the room. Strangely enough the lasers didn't react but when the smoke came out, Oliver could see clearly that there were laser curtains that directed the beams. They swept across the room in an orderly manner. He saw that there was literally no way to avoid them.

 **"Flash, Toyman isn't here. There's just a Console which is probably controlling the toys remotely. But I can't get to it, it's surrounded by laser curtains and a defense system"** He told in the comm. After a few seconds Supergirl was next to him grinning and blasted her heat vision at max power for a few seconds transforming the console into a pile of smoking metal.

 **"But if he isn't here, where is he. I'm sure I saw someone in this room when I scanned the area"** Kara told the archer.

 **"I don't know, can you scan the ground? See if there's any sort of escape route or anything?"** he asked the alien. She looked around and nodded negatively. **"Oh well. I'm coming to help then outside. If there are other toys around and if they aren't disabled I'll be able to keep them off your back"** she nodded and disappeared. The Kryptonite shield that had remained undamaged had taken quite a beating from both Reactron and Corben. It was starting to buckle which in turn made Kal and Kara less and less powerful. There were still toys, but Oliver made it his mission to keep them off the heroes' backs. He even ran out of normal arrows at one point prompting the younger Flash to go around and collect them back for him. Superman was impressed at his accuracy and the fact that even as human as he was, the contribution he brought to the fights was massive making sure that the toys didn't hit him or his cousin. He realized then that people like Oliver were the real heroes, they went into a fight with super powered menaces and still came out on top. The man of steel was happy that such a person was on his side.

Corben was advancing on Superman, he managed to hit him so hard that he flew a couple of meters. Kara stood between him and her cousin while the robot was powering up his blasts.

 **"This is the end of you two. You can go to"** before he managed to finish his sentence a hand busted through his chest. It was her Barry that had a really annoyed look on his face. She noticed the return of the black eyes that always seemed to appear when he got over the top angry with something or as vat had told her, whenever he felt her safety or life was threatened.

 **"We can stay here, thank you very much. As for YOU, you can go to the trash heap. We aren't taking any chances with you anymore. Rest in Pieces"** He started to vibrate his hand literally breaking the robot apart. He fell down in chunks and fully deactivated while older Barry held in his hand the piece of large kryptonite that powered him. He dissolved it, sat on the ground looking at his hand which was useless and his eyes suddenly returned to normal.

 **"Hey, you didn't have to do that. I could have taken him"** Kara came to him to see how bad the wounds were.

 **"Not with that power level"** he pointed at her bracer which was almost flashing red by now. The percentage was extremely low. But they were close. They only had Reactron to deal with now. **"What do we do about him?"** older Barry asked while younger him and Caitlin flashed by their side seeing the damage that he had incurred.

 **"He is still wearing a metal suit. What happens if we try to freeze it and then heat it at the same time. Should the temperature differential make the steel fragment?"** Caitlin asked.

 **"It should, but you have to remember that it's the only thing that's absorbing his radiation. If we destroy the suit then he will begin releasing it into the atmosphere close to an atomic reactor that's gone critical"** Kara reminded them.

 **"You can always throw him into space"** older Barry chuckled at his girlfriend

 **"I would but not with this power level and not with him still having that kryptonite powered suit"** She said bluntly

 **"Let's get rid of the suit then. I'll try to freeze him, Supergirl, Superman you throw all you have into your heat vision and try to melt him. Let's see what happens"** Caitlin suggested and they agreed. The heroes started to hit him from the back while he was battling J'onn. Caitlin hit him with her ice beams, which after being supercharged by her Barry looked more like laser cannon fire than simple beams. Kal and Kara were almost out of power. Older Barry took another bar from Caitlin's pocket and ate it, throwing two large lightning bolts at the blonde whose heat vision quadrupled in output. The Martian joined in as well firing two beams of light from his eyes that hit the nuclear reactor. While before it was safe because of the EM shield that was put around it to give him protection from those kinds of attacks, now since his suit was falling apart the EM shield was gone and the kryptonite that was powering him simply vanished when hit. Without the protection of the shield his suit started to buckle, part of it being melted and part of it being frozen off him. After a few more minutes of constant attack the suit fragmented off him and fell to the ground.

Older Barry gathered the last of the strength that he had in order to not black out and threw two bolts at Kara recharging her partially. Caitlin encased the man into an ice block to stifle the immense amount of radiation that was coming off him and Supergirl grabbed him and flew straight up. Clark was spent, he could barely move after the fight.

 **"Let's hope she has enough strength left to not be hurt when coming down"** Older Barry voiced his concerns about what his girlfriend was doing. She flew high up, the block of ice was starting to melt because of the heat the man was putting off, but she didn't waiver. She approximated where he would break free of the earth gravity and threw him out, seeing him float toward the interminable mantle of stars in front of her. She was weak, but not out of power, so she decided to let herself fall and counter the gravity at the last moment with the remainder of her strength. As she went down she remembered what she did the last time and send two heat beams through the clouds to show the speedsters where she was falling to.

Around her a tornado started to form just as she hit the lower atmosphere. The updraft created was slowing her down considerably and in the middle of the storm, her Barry waited to catch her. At the base of the tornado she could see the beautiful lightning dance of the other two speedsters that were generating the vortex that was braking her. She used the last of her strength to slow herself down enough for her Barry to be able to catch her and then sit down with her in his arms. The vortex soon died, with two panting speedsters coming to a half and sitting down themselves. Kal, J`onn who turned back into Hank and Oliver all sat down. Livewire was still a block of ice, Siobhan knocked out, one of the Metallos was still in one piece with a large ice spear through him which had started to melt. Corben was in pieces and Reactron was gone. All in all, a solid win for the heroes, even with they were still unable to find Toyman.

 **"This proved more difficult than I had thought. Thank you for the help. I'm pretty sure I would have been dead if I came here alone and Lois along with me"** Kal reached out and shook the hands of the three that crossed universes to help.

 **"How is that even an issue"** Younger Barry smiled brightly even if he was panting **"Kara is part of our family. You are her family. Which makes you important"**

 **"Of course we'd help Clark. It's not like we have done something that you wouldn't do for us if we needed assistance"** Caitlin gave him a warm smile even in her Frost form.

 **"You know me, Kal. Even if we have our differences, I've always considered you a friend. All I needed to know is that you were in over your head and I flew here as fast as I could. Which reminds me, DEO Vans should be here shortly to pick these people up, I called Alex before this all started"** He added

 **"Kal, just curious, does Lois know who you are?"** Older Barry asked pretty bluntly.

 **"Yea. I told her a while back, she didn't talk to me for a while, but now we're all good. Why do you ask?"** Superman was interested to know why the speedster wanted that information

 **"Because we're all dead in the water when it comes to energy, so we will need to rest a bit and the only place we can do that is your apartment. I asked because if she didn't know who you were, a collection of people like us could have shocked her for a while and I don't really want to end your relationships for you"** Older Barry told him. Of course he had a point, if Lois didn't know by now who he was, then this rag tag team of heroes would have scared her.

 **"So, who's up for some chocolate flavored speedster power bars? There are two more helpings so we runners can get these people home to rest"** Caitlin quipped taking two of the supplements out of a hidden pocket. The Barry's got them both and downed them, feeling their energy returning enough to move everyone.

 **"I'm going to see where the DEO vans are and come take care of the cleanup. I was the bait for Reactron so I still have most of my strength. You people need to go rest. Very nice work, all of you. Barry, Kara, I'll see you tomorrow"** Hank smiled morphing back into his Martian form and taking off.

The speedsters started plopping back and forth and after a couple of minutes all of them were back at Clark's apartment, greeted by an awake and very confused Lois Lane.

 **"Clark? Who are these people? Why am I in your apartment? I don't remember anything from the last few days"** she asked him quite scared.

 **"You were kidnapped by Cadmus. They sent me a ransom note for Superman to come get you. Only it was a trap. I had to gather some of my friends to help me take care of them"** He smiled at the people that were already in the room.

 **"I was writing about them, so they did manage to come and capture me. I'm so sorry I should have been more careful"** She ran to him and gave him a kiss. Clark didn't bother changing from his superman suit **. "So ... who are these people? I know some of them, but not all"**

 **"Well from this universe, you already know Supergirl and the Flash. Or better said, Kara Danvers and Barry Allen"** He motioned toward the two who had already switched clothes and were now resting.

 **"What do you mean from this universe and ... your cousin and her boyfriend. Why am I not surprised? Must be from your side of the family. Also, the cops that captured Toyman a while back. Very nicely done you two on that one"** Lois replied pretty surprised.

 **"Well, there are a lot of universes and some people have learned how to travel through them. Including these. From the other universe, you might recognize another Barry Allen, which is the Flash there and his wife, Caitlin Allen, which goes by Frost. The other dark figure is the Green Arrow. Another hero from their universe"** Clark explained. Oliver took off his cowl and offered a hand. Thanking Clark for giving him the chance to introduce himself and not blow his secret identity.

 **"Oliver Queen, some people have told me that in this universe I was a fat drug addict. Oh well. I guess not all people had the life I did"** The archer smiled and Lois shook his hand sternly.

 **"OK, wow"** Lois took a seat still trying to process what her boyfriend had told her. **"Multiple universes, multiple versions of the Flash and an archer that in this universe is supposed to be a fat slob. This is my life now"**

 **"To be fair, it's nice to have other heroes from another universe come and help. If it wasn't for them I would have probably died tonight. They managed to bring two Metallos, Reactron, Toyman who apparently escaped from prison, Livewire and Silver Banshee. I might be Superman, but I do have limits myself"** Clark told her.

 **"I think we should take care of that don't you think?"** Caitlin asked bluntly pointing toward the older Barry's hand that was still bleeding. She produced a red mist that was floating in the middle of the room in the form of a column. **"You know what to do"** she smiled. He went into the mist and after it dissipated he came out with his hand fully healed.

 **"It's wasn't as bad as the first time. The EM field must have been weakened. Just a severed tendon and a few sprains, no breaks. Without the fog you would have been fine in a few days. Thanks for that, Caitlin"** She winked at him while he sat down. Lois wanted to ask something but young Barry cut her off.

 **"All speedsters have super healing. I had my spine broken and I recovered so, there's that"** he spoke.

 **"I actually wanted to ask what that fog was"** Lois spoke after him

 **"It's one of the many abilities Frost has. That fog accelerates healing and can provide an additional boost of power to her Barry"** Kara replied. **"What was that form though and the fact that you can apparently spread wings and fly now?"** she asked pretty surprised.

 **"It happened when I was pregnant. The ice armor became what you saw earlier. It's not just ice, they are cells that act like ice crystals. Which means they are flexible enough. As for the wings, back when I tried that … I just thought I wanted to fly and they appeared out of nowhere"** Caitlin replied leaving most of the people there with a shocked look on their faces.

 **"That's my wife for you, all rolled into one. Now I can't complain that there's nobody in my universe to take me flying"** young Barry smiled giving Frost a kiss.

 **"Right. Now we need to eat so … be right back. Younger me, mind coming to give me a hand? Don't worry, we'll keep it slow, we're almost out of power ourselves"** He smirked. He nodded and the two flashed out the door. Lois was still frozen seeing the gathering of heroes in Clark's living room. While on route to buy food, the two started to talk.

 **"Remember you told me I should come to you when I needed something that relates to money"** Older Barry started **"I saw that the ring you gave Caitlin was custom made. I want something like that myself"**

 **"Oh, I see. So you want to pop the questions. Well, let me be the first to congratulate you then"** Younger Barry gave him a goofy smile.

 **"She hasn't said yes yet so, no point in congratulating me now"** the reply came

 **"Dude, don't be an idiot. She loves you as much as I love Cait. You can see it on her face. You might be older than me but you really must be a moron to think that she can refuse"** the candid answer surprised older Barry who realized that his younger self had a point. Besides he could feel what Kara felt for him. It wasn't even a question if she would accept at this point or not.

 **"I guess you have a point. Here. Take this"** He gave her two pieces of paper with designs on them. One had two designs for rings and one for a bracelet. Under them there were specific instructions on how to do them properly

 **"Why the specific instructions. Are they so important?"** younger him asked.

 **"The bracelet is a tradition from Krypton. It has to be done exactly since even a slight deviation from the design could mean something else. It's what's used for weddings on her planet, back when it was you know ... not in pieces scattered across the galaxy. The rings are the same. I used the patterns to make rings out of them. They are not bracelets, but what they signify is the same. That's why they have to be done exactly as I designed them. I would have done that myself, like I did with the bracelet that I gave her for Christmas, but for some reason the jeweler that I went to seems to have moved and I don't have time to scour the countryside to find him"** The answer came

 **"I see. You want to keep tradition from her home world. I think that's sweet. Don't worry, I'll have them done for you. I suspect the first thing you'll need is the engagement ring? Which one is that from these three?"** his younger version inquired.

 **"Well the one that has a diamond on it of course"** He snickered, but also pointed at one of the designs. **"That pattern is something that I came up with I guess. There is no thing as an engagement on Krypton, so I made a combination of the one that signifies marriage and the one that means love. The others have precise meanings however"**

 **"Don't worry. I'll get them to you. I'm going to give you some more diamonds so you can plan this whole proposal thing well. She wouldn't keep talking about the date you two had when you visited. Nice one with making an impression on her with that one"** young Barry snickered.

 **"Thank you. It seems a bit odd that I'm asking this of a version of me that is loaded and way more successful than I've always been"** Older Barry replied.

 **"No problem. I've already told you. You two look so good together and I'm going to help make that happen. Well me and Caitlin since she found out from back then that I sent you the diamonds. You know what her reaction was?"** young Barry told him. The older version shook his head **"Why the hell didn't you send him more? It's not like we don't have money"** Both of them started to laugh as they gathered pizzas, donuts, sweets and pot stickers but this time from the Chinese place in National City. **"I'll let you know how long it will take. Then you can plan your approach accordingly"** The two speedsters landed back in Clark's apartment with a tower of food. Lois looked at what they brought like they were feeding half of Africa, but she soon realized that it might not be enough, seeing the speedsters, Kara and Clark eat. Oliver just got himself a solitary pizza which he didn't even manage to finish.

 **"This really hit the spot"** Caitlin smiled after finishing a dozen pizzas just by her lonesome.

 **"You know, I'm starting to get jealous of you and Kara. You can eat like pigs and keep your beautiful figures, while I eat a pizza and I get love handles"** Lois admonished herself.

 **"So what's wrong with those. You know I don't like skinny women"** Clark cracked a smile. Both Barry and his younger duplicate started to laugh.

 **"When we both woke up and Cait saw how much she had to eat she actually was worried that she might get fat. I know it was a while ago but still, that discussion still makes me laugh. To be fair, I did get her fat, just not with food"** Young Barry told the group.

 **"Barry Allen, you always told me how beautiful I was, you have never mentioned once the word fat"** She replied to her Barry

 **"Context, my dear, context. We were talking about getting fat"** He replied **"Even if that meant pregnancy"** the two Allens started to laugh loudly

 **"Well, now she has abs, kind of like you. Which is surprising considering that she gave birth not long ago"** the older version cracked a smile to which Kara replied with a pout

 **"So what? You like athletic women that have a six-pack now?"** Older Barry shut her up pretty quickly with a long deep kiss. Clark had to turn his head, it still seemed weird to him to see his cousin snogging someone in his house.

 **"Shut up"** older Barry told her, but everyone could see that she was all a smile after they separated from the kiss.

 **"We should get going. I think we might sleep better in our own beds and we do want to check in on our little one. I don't think Henry and Tina can keep up with him that well. Oliver, you can stay with us in the penthouse and we can run you tomorrow back to Star City. Is that ok?"** young Barry asked. The archer nodded prompting Lois to look at the two crooked.

 **"Penthouse?"** she asked to which Kara responded.

 **"These two are billionaires. Also, I should mention geniuses in at least three fields that I know of unless you decided to up your game. So yeah, penthouse"**

 **"Well I did kind of have to get an OBGYN specialty, since Cait was pregnant, but beside that no, nothing new just the usual Bioengineering, Genetics, Both Doctors, Hematologists, CSI's, you know ... same old, same old"** Young Barry gave her a grin. Lois's face fell. Young Barry put a call in to Cisco who told them that he will get to the penthouse and open a breach straight there. In about 30 minutes a large swirling vortex opened at the end of the table.

 **"I guess we'll see you around"** young Barry told the group.

 **"Don't hesitate to call if you need help also, you can just drop in to spend a lazy day at the pool like you have done before. That vacation house is not just for us you know. Clark, Lois you two are welcomed as well"** Caitlin threw them a smirk.

 **"We will don't worry. The same applies to you. Call if you need help. Me and Kara will be there to assist"** Older Barry replied prompting a nod from the blonde.

 **"Count me in too. Thank you for the help you three and we might just take you up on that offer for a lazy day at the pool, Caitlin"** Clark told them. They all said their goodbyes and the three walked back through the portal as it closed behind them.

 **"I guess we should get some rest. Come on, Lois. I'll take you home"** Clark looked at the two on the couch that were still yawning.

 **"It's fine, I'll sleep here with you. You look tired. No point in taking me home now. You should rest too"** she smiled at him as they went into the other room and closed the door.

 **"Good night beautiful. I love you. Sweet dreams"** Barry thought to his beautiful girlfriend.

 ** _"Good night to you as well, handsome. I love you"_** she replied as they changed into their pajamas and laid on the couch. They fell asleep almost instantly happy for a day well spent and for the two that were reunited after everything that happened.


	27. Setup

Barry was out for a bit getting groceries for the morning when his phone rang. Since he had the ring with the Flash suit always on him the communicator would always tie him into the intra dimensional communication system that it had. It was his other self, but judging by the sounds in the background he wasn't alone.

 **"Hello, Me"** The voice chuckled form the other side.

 **"Good morning to you as well, Me"** Barry replied to his double. The Me, Me replies had been a thing for a bit so it always made them chuckle. **"What's up?"**

 **"Then thing you asked for, that time when we went to your universe to fight that gathering of Villains that kidnapped Lois? It's done"** the reply came

 **"You mean…"** Barry got cut off

 **"Yes, your engagement ring is ready"** Caitlin replied with am excited voice.

 **"That was fast, you told me at least a couple of weeks. What happened with that?"** the speedster asked his counterpart.

 **"Apparently it took way less. I went to the same jeweler that had our rings done and he made it in record time. Giving him some extra money might have helped, but ... you know. What don't you do for a friend"** young him replied.

 **"Just, how much extra money are we talking about?"** Barry asked.

 **"Does it matter? He got it done way faster"** Caitlin told him through the phone

 **"No, it doesn't. You`re right. Thank you for solving that problem for me. I still haven't managed to find the jeweler that made me the bracelet back then"** The speedster thanked the two.

 **"Ok. Same thing as the last time then? Can you get to a place where nobody would freak if a blue portal opens?"** his younger self asked. Barry moved back to a safe place and replied that he's in the clear. The same moment, a blue portal opened by Cisco appeared in front of him and a pouch fell through it. **"Same as before, you have the ring and a bit more money that last time "**

 **"It never came up but apparently diamonds are really expensive in this universe. The 600k you gave me last time turned out to be almost 2 mil here"** Barry told his counterpart

 **"If that's accurate then it means you have almost 5 mil there. Since the last time my beautiful wife kept nagging that we should have sent more"** the reply came.

 **"Are you for real right now, you sent me 5 mil worth of diamonds along with the ring? Where do you think I'm going to propose to her? The moon?"** Barry replied.

 **"Why not? But didn't you say that world isn't as scientifically advanced as ours? So how could you do that on the moon"** Caitlin asked surprised.

 **"I was joking, Caitlin. Again this is way too much money, I still have like 500k from the last trip and you know where I took her"** the speedster told the two.

 **"Doesn't matter. We've told you. We have more money than we would need in the rest of our lifetimes. To be fair, this doesn't even come close to the assets you left us when you went to that universe. We know you'll make it count"** Caitlin spoke and you could hear her chuckle. **"One piece of advice though, try to make it a surprise. I don't know how your bond works, but try not to let anything on all right?"**

 **"I'll try. Thank you, you two"** he replied.

 **"The bracelet and the wedding rings will take a bit more. We'll let you know when to come get them, or we can send them over like we did this. Take care. I would say good luck, but if you remember what I told you back when you asked me for help, you know why I'm not saying that"** Young Barry spoke with a clear voice.

 **"I know. I know. Actually, I might use a bit of help from you two setting all this up. I don't really know any nice places here to take her out and since we both eat like pigs I think you know that she would rather prefer us to be alone"** he replied.

 **"You can always come here, it's not like you haven't visited before. You can use the vacation house for your plans. You know how it's set up. Besides, there has already been a wedding here, why not another proposal"** younger him replied.

 **"Yeah, but telling her you want to come over to this side might spark too many questions. Even if you have been here before it's not something that you do every day"** Caitlin replied.

 **"Can you like "invite" us to an impromptu party or something. With a random motive, something that she wouldn't say no to and I can use for what I'm planning?"** older Barry asked the two.

 **"We can, but we don't know what you want to do and how to have everything set up. So, unless you can get away from her for a few hours and come to setup everything yourself, that would be a dud"** Younger him replied.

 **"I know what I can do. I can make some time remnants and send them through the portal to your side of the universe. They should manage to do everything I want. That way I'm still with Kara and they can just go back to the speed force when they are done"** The answer came.

 **"We'll have to get Cisco to make the portal. If you can't enter the ones made by the speed force then the remnants wont either. Don't yours have some time limit on them as well? I know mine do"** Younger Barry asked.

 **"They do. But two hours give or take should be more than enough. To be fair, that time when Caitlin was giving birth you managed to keep one up for a little over 4 hours, I still don't know how you did that, considering you had just learned to use them"** Older Barry responded

 **"Send them. We'll give them as much help as we can. Hopefully until they have to go back everything will be finished. They know what to do, right?"** Caitlin asked.

 **"Yes. One more thing. Since the shields are detachable, can you have Cisco make one for my suit? I'm giving one of the remnants a design. It's the same as the shield she has on her other suit, just with the lightning on top and the house of el symbol underneath"** the older speedster told them sternly. He already had a plan in his head about what and how he wanted that evening to go.

 **"Ok. Actually, Cisco has been working on that already, we wanted it to be a surprise"** the voice said and another portal opened in front of him. Older Barry started to run as fast as he could. It did sap his energy, but he managed to make three time remnants. One dressed in a suit and two dressed in their flash costumes. The three figures ran through the portal as it closed. **"So you can make more than two? That's awesome"** younger him chuckled.

 **"I can probably make about 10 and more than likely so can you if you actually try. But if I do that I'm going to be spent and Kara might figure out something is wrong. Ok then, I don't know, give us a call around 4? TO invite us to that impromptu party. After that I'll take care of it"** older him replied.

 **"When you get at the allotted time here, you'll get a call telling you that we will be fashionably late because of something at the firm that sidetracked us. That should at most give you an hour to do what you have to do. The others will come at 8, but we'll stay away until everything happens. Is that enough?"** Caitlin asked

 **"Yes. That is more than enough, besides, they need to be there to see at least the end. Thank you for all the help. I think you don't need to call either, just be there and hide or something"** Older him replied.

 **"Barry, we know you don't really have so many friends you can entrust with something that has this much importance on that world. We're glad to help, because we did tell you this before. Even with what happened everyone deserves a second chance at happiness. We'll see what we do about the hiding. Talk to you later"** the reply came and his younger self closed the call. Again, Barry went to the diamond exchange and got his 5 mil that the diamonds the others had sent were worth, going and depositing them in his bank account keeping the usual 5k on him. His feelings however betrayed him, Kara could feel from a distance how happy he suddenly felt.

 ** _"What's going on with you. You seem to be so happy that I can feel it all the way over here as well"_** the question came through.

 ** _"Nothing, just thinking about things. Where we are, how we got here. How much I love you. You know… the usual"_** Barry lied through his teeth. He wanted his proposal to be a total blind for his beautiful girlfriend.

 ** _"Barry Allen the romantic. That's… nothing new to be honest. I never felt what you feel so clear till now at this distance. So I can say you`re a hopeless romantic even. By the way, where are you?"_** she asked.

 ** _"Went out for some groceries, we were out of eggs, flour and syrup for pancakes. Since you were still sleeping I thought I'd do a run for them"_** Barry replied

 ** _"Come back soon. I miss you"_** she said and Barry felt it. It was strange, she really did miss him, the feeling was so familiar to him and yet so hated. With the ring in his pocket and since he had already bought what was needed he speeded home, reaching the living area in less than a second.

 ** _"What, my lady wants, my lady gets"_ **he voiced so she would know he had come back home, flashing out of his clothes into the usual shorts with no shirt that Kara seemed to like so much. She came out of the bedroom with just some underwear on and a Flash T shirt. **"I still remember the time when I came here and I was surprised there was no flash T shirt. I can say that you look good wearing my shield now"**

 **"Well, the Flash is now a well-known figure. Of course you'd have merchandise and you know I love wearing it. I have it on the other suit don't I?"** she smiled coming up to him and giving him a soft long kiss.

 **"I'm still wondering, why did you do that?"** Barry asked, he had a good idea but he wanted to hear it from her.

 **"Well since now were an item, I thought it would be nice that the people actually see that for themselves and what better way for them to do that if they see your shield along with mine on my chest"** Kara told him smiling.

 **"That's going to be the same for me in a little while"** He gave her a smile, surprising her completely. The different shield was something that she came up with, in the beginning it was to show him how much she loved him. She didn't care about the masses knowing or even noticing the change. It was strange that now he had the same thing in the works

 **"What do you mean?"** she asked.

 **"I've been talking to Cisco to remake my shield in the way you remade yours and since they are detachable and you can wear them on both suits, I thought why not. You have your shield and in the background mine, I'll have mine on top and yours underneath"** He managed to chuckle.

 **"You always liked it more on top"** Kara looked at him and started to laugh

 **"Kara Danvers, making a sexual innuendo without blushing red like a tomato? What is this world coming to"** Barry cracked and started to laugh. She turned around and got rid of the t shirt that she was wearing going back into the bedroom. Motioning for him to come back to bed. Barry lost no time in flashing in after her, the pressure of the air closing the door behind him with a thud.

 **Earth 1 – Allen Vacation house.**

Barry and Caitlin were surprised to see three versions of himself that came out of the blue portal and started to rearrange stuff in their garden. The one that had a suit on came to talk to them.

 **"You were right in assuming that I had some sort of plan. I didn't have this beautiful house to put in practice, so thank god for rich friends"** the remnant chuckled

 **"Modify whatever you want and we can help as well. As long as you put them back when we're done"** Barry chuckled

 **"You didn't come up with this plan now, did you?"** Caitlin asked pretty convinced.

 **"How did you guess?"** the remnant asked.

 **"Simple. I remember him telling us about how much he loved the other Kara in his timeline. If it is as much as we saw he loves this one then it stood to reason that he had wanted to marry his own version. Am I wrong in assuming that?"** Caitlin inquired.

 **"No, you would be right. He did want to marry the other Kara. He even spent almost three years learning Kryptonian to perfection but in the end that didn't work out as planned"** The remnant replied.

 **"OK so what can we do to help?"** younger Barry asked.

 **"These two know what they have to do. Sadly, he did forget to give us money to make it all happen"** The remnant in a suit told them.

 **"That's not a problem. Use this"** Caitlin gave him a credit card.

 **"You sure you want to help?"** the remnant inquired

 **"Yes. Tell us what to do. We know you have a set time and after that you have to leave back to the speed force. If you don't get everything set until then we can do it ourselves"** Caitlin replied. The remnant started to explain what the older Barry had in mind also giving them the design to the new shield he wanted.

 **"Well I guess that can be done, but where the hell are going to find glow in the dark paint this time of day"** Barry looked at the remnant.

 **"We don't have to. Remember the nanite spray we put across the grass and everything else in order to help keep mosquitos away and all that ?"** Cisco came from behind.

 **"Sure, what's with it?"** Caitlin looked at him rather surprised.

 **"Hello, they are nanites, which means, they can glow. We don't even need glow in the dark paint, I just need to program them to emit a light similar to a firefly and we're done"** the engineer smiled brightly at them.

 **"Had no idea that was even a thing. Cisco you amaze me more and more every day"** Barry told his friend who was all a large smile.

 **"OK since that's done, who do you want to be at the "party". Since for sure this wasn't planned, some people might not even make it here in the next 5 hours"** Caitlin told them rather worried that the people that are supposed to be here might not make it.

 **"The usual band, Oliver and Felicity, Ray and Thea, Henry and Tina, Joe and what's her name, that DA he's dating. Iris and Eddie. That should be enough. I don't know where Sara is, but if you can get ahold of her, they should be good. Also, if you can get Clark and Lois, Alex and Winn, J`onn and Cat Grant, from my dimension. Cisco if you can have something that can take high resolution clear photos of the whole thing that would be amazing"** the remnant stated.

 **"That is quite a large list of people. I guess we should start making phone calls. We'll send you back to your own dimension to talk to the people there. Since they don't have communicators you'll have to give them at least trackers so Cisco knows where to make the portals for them to be here"** Younger Barry told the remnant who agreed.

 **"I do. There are high resolution cameras all over the house. They were initially put here for security, but I'm pretty sure I can have them take pictures of the moment he proposes"** The engineer smiled and made a portal back to earth 38 giving him 3 devices that would act as trackers and he was gone. The other two were hard at work getting everything ready.

 **"I guess we need to start calling people. Come on. We can each take a side and do that. They can make it just in time from Star City with the jet if we call them now"** Caitlin thought out loud. One of the remnants stopped by her side.

 **"Don't worry, Caitlin. We can stop working and get the people here in a few minutes if they can't make it. As you know we're pretty fast"** he smiled at her and she agreed. He went back to work and Frost went into the house. Barry took out his cell and called his dad, first.

 **"Hey dad. I was wondering if you have time this evening to come to a little party we're cooking up"** the speedster told him.

 **"Hey, slugger. What's this about? You rarely call me out of the blue to invite me to a party"** the man replied form the other end of the line.

 **"I thought you would want to be there when your other son proposes to his future wife. Nothing too special"** Barry downplayed the event completely.

 **"Wait, what? Did I hear you correctly? Barry wants to propose to Kara? Sure I'm in. When?"** the old man jumped like he was told the best new all year.

 **"Tonight. Be here at 8. Bring Tina as well. She knows them and we wouldn't have you without your girlfriend"** Barry chuckled almost seeing Henry cringe at that statement.

 **"We'll be there"** Tina's voice came from the phone. The two had been living together for a while so that was nothing to be really concerned about. Barry closed the line and dialed Oliver. Felicity responded instead.

 **"Hey, Felicity. Do you have some time to take from your busy weekend to come to a little get together?"** The speedster asked

 **"I'm sensing a special occasion here, we rarely get together like this out of the blue, unless it's for sun and BBQ"** She replied turning the phone to speaker so Oliver could hear.

 **"Barry wants to propose to Kara. He wants you to be here for the engagement party. That's as simple as I can put it"** the speedster told them bluntly.

 **"Wait, that's already happening? And I thought you were a dog, but your other self takes the cake on that one. We'll be there. Who else?"** She asked.

 **"You and Ollie, Ray and Thea and if you manage to get a hold of Sara that would be good as well. Remember, the jet takes 4 hours to get here, so be careful not to be late. You need to get here by 8. Since Kara has super hearing, a car pulling up would give the gag away"** Caitlin replied.

 **"We'll be there"** Oliver's stern voice replied and Felicity closed the line. Barry flashed to the house where Caitlin was talking to Iris and Eddie, he only caught the tail end of the conversation but the two agreed on coming as well. She smiled at him and after closing the call she dialed in Joe.

 **"Morning, Joe. Do you have some time free tonight?"** she asked nonchalantly.

 **"Hello, Caitlin. I don't really have anything to do, what's up?"** the old detective asked surprised of the call.

 **"Can you get Cecile and join us at a little party tonight? Your other son wants to propose so, we thought that it would be a good idea that you were here to see it"** Caitlin chuckled.

 **"No way? Barry wants to propose to Kara? Damn that was fast, I thought this will take way more time than it did. Consider it done, when and where?"** he replied with audible enthusiasm in his voice.

 **"Our vacation house, at 8 pm tonight. We're going to give them some time alone but everyone has to be here by that time. Since Kara has super hearing we would give ourselves away if she hears a car"** Caitlin explained.

 **"All right. We're definitely coming. Thanks for the heads up"** Joe closed the line and the two smirked at each other.

 **"That's done. We have to take care of the food. I don't think seating will be a problem. IS there anything else we're missing?"** Barry inquired. At the same time one of the time remnants popped next to them.

 **"Can we ask Cisco to make some of that hardening fabric? Since this is a party I would suspect that people might like to dance after everything is done so we're going to need something resembling a dance floor"** He asked.

 **"There is already one done. We had it made for when we got married for the same purpose only it never got used. It's still in the basement"** Caitlin pointed him to a door and the remnant disappeared. **"This is going to be something different. "**

 **"I guess he is way better at this stuff then I was. I proposed to you with a corny letter and a ring"** Barry looked at her and the two chuckled.

 **"Sure, it was corny but I loved it. You do have to remember that in the end it's the memory that matters. I won't forget that Christmas day for as long as I live, so I would say no matter how corny that was, the purpose was achieved"** Caitlin hugged Barry and gave him a kiss. The two returned outside to see if the remnants still needed help with anything while Cisco went back to the labs to finish work on the shield that he had been building for the older version of his friend. Both speedsters were checking in on their son regularly as the little tyke kept waking up and being hungry. Which was no surprise, even with his speed dampened, his metabolism was still something that resembled theirs.

 **Earth 38 –National City**

Barry's time remnant took out his phone and looked at the time. He didn't know if everyone would be available but he tried anyway. First call was placed toward the DEO. Alex picked up

 **"Hey Alex."** the remnant greeted

 **"Hey, Barry. Is there anything the matter?"** She asked with a bit of worry in her voice.

 **"First of all, I'm not Barry. I'm a time remnant, just so we get that out of the way. Second do you have some time tonight? You, Winn and J'onn need to be present for something important"** the remnant made it clear

 **"A time remnant? But why would Barry do that… unless… Wait, this is supposed to be a surprise for Kara, isn't it?"** she realized

 **"Yes. Barry wants to propose. He wants you to be there, so I was tasked with that. I also need to talk to Clark and Cat"** the answer came rather fast.

 **"I saw this coming a mile away. Back when me and Kara were talking about the bracelet he gave her for Christmas she slipped and told me flat out that she would want to spend the rest of her life with him. He wants to, she wants to, so it was obvious this was coming sooner or later. When and where is this happening?"** she asked. The time remnant closed the phone and flashed into the DEO with his flash suit on. He gave her one of the trackers.

 **"It's in the other universe. Take this, it's a tracker. Cisco will be able to make a portal so you can come through. It all goes down at 8 tonight"** The remnant told them. Winn and J`onn were there and they nodded. Barry dialed in Cat which answered after a little bit

 **"Barry? To what do I owe the pleasure?"** she asked

 **"Cat, can you come out on the balcony? The Flash is going to pay you a little visit"** Barry told him and was gone. Alex and Winn were excited to have been invited to something like that. Cat closed the line and came to the balcony just in time for Barry's remnant to show up

 **"I'm a time remnant. So we get that out of the way. Barry wants to propose to Kara and he wants you to be there. Take this"** he handed her a tracker. **"It's all going down in the alternate universe at the other speedsters Beach house so, there has to be a way for us to know where to plop a portal so you can come through"**

 **"Those two are perfect for each other, I thought this might be coming sooner than later. The way they changed each other and how they complement their strengths and weaknesses, besides the fact that they told me long ago what happened and how they told each other their secret identities in minutes of meeting. This was definitely a long time coming. Ok. So how does this work, I keep it on me and at a certain time a portal will pop up and I go through it?"** she asked.

 **"Pretty much. At 8 tonight a portal will open for you to join us. I've already talked to the others. Word of advice, be somewhere secluded and be alone. This office should do well as long as nobody is around or even your own home. People might freak out if a blue swirling vortex comes out of nowhere"** He told her

 **"Understood. A question if I may, why would they want me there? Isn't that sort of event for family ?"** she sked quite surprised.

 **"Yes, but it's also for close friends. What did you think you are, an acquaintance? Come on Cat, we both know how much the two care about you. Kara has regarded you as a mentor for a while and Barry thinks so highly of you that he had no problem in showing you his secret identity when he saw you how you act. Maybe it's time you see that as well"** the remnant smiled shocking Cat with the candor of his statement. Even if he was a time remnant it was still Barry. She nodded and the time remnant disappeared, in a cascade of lightning heading toward Metropolis. On the way he called Clark.

 **"Clark, are you and Lois free tonight?"** He asked nonchalantly

 **"We don't have anything planned, we thought about dinner in and a movie on the couch but nothing special. Why?"** Superman asked.

 **"I'm coming to you. I'll explain when I get there"** The remnant closed the line and started to accelerate. After a few minutes he was back in Clark's apartment, visibly tired. Superman sped out and brought him some food. **"So, here's the deal. I'm a time remnant of Barry. Not the man himself. He is trying to surprise Kara with something, but since those two are always together, you know. He thought to send us out to do the bulk of the work"**

 **"Ah I see, he's using you so he doesn't have to leave her side, which will prompt questions from my inquisitive cousin. What's the surprise?"** He asked. Lois came and sat down with them.

 **"He wants to propose. He thought it was high time to do so. I've already contacted the others. Of course, the only blood relative of the person being proposed to should attend, don't you think?"** the remnant chuckled.

 **"He wants to propose?!"** Lois jumped **"That's wonderful"**

 **"I saw that coming a mile away. Kara did tell me a few things and the fact that they both share a bond, it was just a matter of time. Where and when?"** Superman asked with a large smile. The remnant extended his hand and gave them the last tracker.

 **"In the other universe. At 8 PM tonight. He's using the beach house for what he wants to do"** The remnant told him prompting a confused look from Lois.

 **"I've been there already, Lois. That time when I told you Kara and I were going to a wedding of a friend of hers. We didn't go in this universe, we went to the wedding of the two speedsters you met a while back. Those were the friends she was talking about"** Superman explained to his girlfriend.

 **"Ah. Now I understand where you know them from. I need to find something nice to wear"** She got up and went to the other room

 **"You heard her, we're going as well. What are you going to do? Can I help with anything?"** The man of steel asked pretty bluntly.

 **"No, everything is going as it should be. There are two more helping to get everything ready and Barry is still with Kara so he doesn't give her any sort of hints as to what is happening. Thanks for the food and see you tonight then"** The remnant smiled and flashed out the window leaving Superman rather confused.

Back at Barry and Kara's apartment, the two had taken a break from enjoying themselves and decided to come and make some food. After a few hours their stomachs had started to growl. In a normal manner, Barry's phone rang. He recognized the caller ID as being the one that was assigned when someone from the other universe was calling.

 **"Hello you two"** Caitlin said with a cheery voice **"Are you doing anything tonight?"**

 **"We were thinking about some Netflix and chill. But no, nothing that special. Why do you ask?"** Kara replied nonchalantly

 **"How about you hop over to our universe, say around ... 8 ? There is going to be a party for a special event and we thought you would like to join so you could be part of it"** Younger Barry replied.

 **"Sure, might we ask what that special event is ?"** older Barry inquired. He had to keep appearances, he knew exactly what the event was

 **"No, you may not. It's supposed to be a surprise and we aim to keep it that way. We just need to know if you're coming of not"** Caitlin said from the other end of the line.

 **"Yea. We're coming. Any sort of dress code?"** Kara asked.

 **"The usual. Evening wear. There might be dancing later depending on how everything goes or maybe even a water fight. Or something fun between friends. We'll see"** young Barry replied.

 **"Water fights with evening wear? That's a bit strange"** Kara replied.

 **"It's fine. We'll be there. Should we wait for Cisco to make a portal or should we use our own?"** older Barry asked.

 **"You can make your own. Come to the beach house and we can take it from there"** Caitlin replied.

 **"All right. Meet you tonight. Thank you for the invite"** Barry chuckled and closed the line.

 **"Come on, let's go look for something nice to wear. We can't go to all the parties with the same dress and suit now can we?"** Barry smiled to his girlfriend who nodded. The two both put on some clothes and went shopping for elegant clothes to wear to what, Kara thought, would be a normal party between friends.


	28. Circumstance

The two came back from shopping around 6. It took quite a bit longer than they had expected. Kara was surprised that Barry actually had money to buy them clothes. They lived together, she knew for a fact that they had enough to sustain themselves and their enormous appetites but having such a large sum of money was strange to her. She wanted to ask decided not to. It wasn't like he was stealing from banks or anything. He got himself a new three-piece suit and some nice shoes, Kara got herself a dark blue dress and stilettos that came with it. The moment however Barry bought her another necklace she had to ask where everything was coming from. The confusion she had was felt immediately by her boyfriend.

 **"What are you confused about?"** He asked almost immediately.

 **"Well, I didn't want to bring that up, but we almost have the same paycheck now, so where in the world do you have so much money. You didn't sell organs or anything did you? Kara looked at him and chuckled.**

 **"No. I asked the other Barry to give me some"** He said nonchalantly

 **"Wait, you seriously asked him for cash? Isn't that you know … a bit strange?"** she replied.

 **"Not at all. While I was there, I did some choice investments, in some companies. Since I had quite a good idea of what the future would bring, those were profitable enough. When I came here, I turned over all the assets I had to the Allens. So, when I was asking him for money, I wasn't asking him for his money, I thought he could give me some of mine back"** Barry explained the situation rather clearly

 **"Ah I see. So, it was more of a thing of you getting some of your money back rather than asking for it"** Kara replied.

 **"Something like that. We don't really need much to sustain ourselves and our appetites, but sometimes when you want something to be really special, I had to … poke into that fund and younger me was kind enough to help"** Barry replied

 **"Let me get this straight, what are you telling me at this moment, is that you`re basically rich?"** Kara chuckled.

 **"I have no idea. I never asked in detail what the folio that I left with the other me was worth. To be fair as long as we have a nice place to live and we're together, I don't really care. You`re all I need"** Barry replied with candor, making his girlfriend blush. He had a hard time containing his happiness and also his stress. His assassin training came in handy in controlling his feelings so that they wouldn't spill through the bond over to Kara. It would have totally ruined the surprise, if she suddenly found out what he wanted to do.

 **"So, do you have any idea what this is all about?"** she asked. Looking at him while disrobing to go take a shower.

 **"None whatsoever. Who knows what those two are scheming? It might even just be a simple gathering between friends to which they put a "special" connotation to"** Barry lied.

 **"Oh well. I guess we shall see. Join me for a shower?"** she extended a hand to him

 **"That would be something I would never refuse"** Barry gave her a grin looking at the beautiful woman in front of him.

After the two finished the shower and had something light to eat, it was nearing the time where they should be present at the party so they both put on their clothes and Barry used his ring to open a portal through which they both stepped through. He was holding the ring in his jacket pocket.

 **Earth 1 – Allen Vacation residence.**

It was nearly time for everything to start. Barry and Caitlin were dressed up. Most of the guests had already arrived. The two speedsters went to each and flashed them here. The ones from Star had been taken from the airport and brought here as well via the Speedster Express. The guests from the other universe were next and Cisco was about to bring them in. The engineer thought it good to make a sort of curtain from the fabric that they developed.

 **"Why would we need something like that, Cisco?"** Caitlin asked surprised.

 **"It's going to block sound and it reacts like lead. Kara won't be able to see through it. Let's just say if this is supposed to be a surprise then let it be a surprise. You realize if she sees a gathering of people here she will want to come inside"** He made a pretty good point.

 **"Good thinking Cisco. Isn't it time that we brought in the other guests?"** He asked. The engineer nodded and he opened three portals in sequence each keyed to one of the trackers that he had given to the time remnant. From them, Alex, Winn, Clark, Lois, J`onn and Cat came out, the swirling vortices closing behind them.

 **"Welcome everyone. I suspect everyone knows everyone. If not, feel free to make introductions. The happy unaware couple hasn't arrived yet"** Barry told the two. Cat was pretty surprised seeing another Barry Allen on this earth and with a beautiful wife to boot. The only persons that knew her were the ones from her universe so she needed to be introduced to everyone. Unsurprising to her, she was received with warmth and friendship. It was nice to meet people who didn't know who you are, just like a simple friend to a couple. Not the media mogul that everyone thought was a bitch and they treated as such, when they weren't licking her boots. She felt instantly at home here with this band of people that she had never met.

 **"So let me get this straight. You`re the same Barry Allen I know. You`re from this universe and you have your own family?"** She asked the person in front of her with a bit of confusion in her voice.

 **"Pretty much. He is me, only older by about 8 years. Some stuff happened and he wanted to go to your world because that's where the woman he loved was. Nothing more than that I'm afraid, you see, love even conquers dimensions. Well at least when you`re someone who can move between them"** Barry grinned at Cat. She found it extremely confusing that this one had the same responses as the one she knew. That all faded away when she finally realized what she had been told. They were the same person, only the one she knew was older. Cisco had rolled down one of the large screens that were in the ceiling and pulled up the surveillance feed for the cameras that were in the courtyard. The moment they saw a vortex open, the lights went dark and they all stood there watching. They had been told in advance that this was a surprise so it would have been a good idea if they were quiet. They all grinned but nobody had anything to say against it. They all wanted to see how it would play out.

Barry and Kara appeared in the middle of the courtyard where they had been before surprised that nobody was actually there. Everything was set up for a party, even the dance floor and the torches that were offering light to the place, but there was nobody there.

 **"Are you sure they said 8? It seems like there's nobody around"** Kara looked a bit confused.

 **"I'm pretty sure, although you know me, being just with you anywhere is good enough"** the speedster looked at his girlfriend. **"Well, better make the best of this since we're here alone"**

 **"What do you mean?"** she looked at him quizzically

 **"I lied when I said that I didn't know what this party was about. I knew very well the special occasion that it entailed. Why? Well that's simple. Because I planned it"** Barry smiled looking at her.

 **"Huh? You planned it? How? You were with me all day"** she replied looking at him confused.

 **"Of course I was. That was part of what I planned. I was with you all day, but my time remnants were not"** She looked at him surprised and maybe a bit annoyed that he lied but she understood that what he had been planning must have been a surprise and let it go **"You see, Kara. Ever since we managed meet and later come together as a couple there has been something on my mind. Itching back there. At first I thought it was just a remnant from a timeline long deleted, but as the weeks passed and we continued to spend more and more time together, that itch didn't really go away, it only grew larger and larger.**

 **Remember what you told me that day on the meadow when you first met me, again ... well you get it"** he started to babble a bit **"You used something that I didn't understand at the time. I thought it to have been used for jest or maybe to signify something that you had on your mind at the time. You asked me "Is forever long enough for you?"**. That was something at the time that I was not able to answer. I thought that you meant that you would be there for me whenever I needed it for as long as I needed it. I didn't even think for a minute at the word and what it meant. I didn't even know if what I was thinking and what was itching at the back of my mind was what you meant **" Kara looked at him and understood where he was going. That time she said it not fully understanding what the word actually meant. In the crush that she had for Barry she used something that could have had a whole different meaning and she knew now that he had picked up on it. "In the time that passed, I realized that inadvertently it was exactly what you wanted it to mean. The time that we spent together showed me that even if you didn't say anything, the sense of what you had told me that day started to creep slowly toward what I was thinking.**

 **I dream about you almost every night, even though I have you near me, I love your smiles and the way you brighten up my day, or a room full of corpses as the case might be"** Kara started to chuckle at that **"the cute way you drool when you fall asleep and you`re really tired,"** the blonde rolled her eyes" The way you manage to take even my worst memories and make me feel all right while telling them, the way you turn old symbols, that stood for nothing else that the worse things in my life at the time, into laughter, like that time when I cringed at Menace and you made a Dennis the Menace joke. I love your attitude and the fact that you are literally the sunshine in my life. I know I'm a bit dark, sometimes way too broody, I guess you could compare me to Oliver before his Felicity days" Oliver heard that and made a grimace, but then grinned nodding his head in approval as older Barry continued

 **"I love it when you`re around and I miss you like I would miss breathing when you aren't with me "** Kara gave him a comical look **"What? I can't hold my breath for a few hours like a certain blonde alien can. Explains why I always want you there next to me. I cannot describe to you the feeling that came over me that day you left CatCo and you were without a job and the first thing you said was that you wanted to come work with me. I was so out of it at the time, you have no idea. Thank god I can control my feelings with the training Oliver gave me from his League of Assassins days, or else that day I would have probably been walking on sunshine and farting rainbows"** Kara looked at him and stifled a laugh, but she understood what he meant. She felt the same as he did **"You would be around me all day, whether it would be at home, at work, or out there saving the city from threats and then I realized something. You could call it me opening my eyes to the eventuality of happiness. My happiness, with you, the woman I love. That was something that I wanted, not for a day, not for a month, not for a year. I wanted it and I needed it to be for the rest of my life"** Kara's face fell. From those simple words she realized where this had to be going. She looked at him with wide eyes, which had already started to water, letting him continue. Barry noticed **"I love you, Kara. With your little quips and fears, the little weird smiles and awkward blushes, the way you're shy about your body even though you look hot as hell in certain outfits, I love your blue eyes, I swear I could get lost in them just by watching you gaze into the distance. I love everything about you. The confused looks you give me when you don't understand something about my timeline, the cute crease you get in your brow when you try to pout, the way that only one eye waters when you try to fake crying, the jaw dropping image of you walking in the sunset on a beach wearing a bikini, the smug face when you outsmart me on something, the way you look totally in control and demanding when holding those two cannons, the way your body moves when we spar and the cute demeanor you never seem to lose, doesn't matter if we're in trouble or we're just walking in the park. As time passed I thought more and more at what you told me that day. Would you offer me forever? Was that something that I was allowed to dream when it came to you? Am I deserving of a woman so beautiful, smart, kind, warm and so filled with light, that it managed to offset the darkness that I have in myself up to the point I don't even feel it anymore? If that was a question you would have asked me a few months ago I might have hesitated to answer. Not anymore. It's not about deserving it's about wanting, needing and having. You have showed me all of that over the time that we were together. You understood my reasons in doing the things I have done, you supported me whenever I needed a helping hand and you stood by me and helped me to strive to become a better person, gave me the conviction to become a hero and a man that you could be proud of. A man that I could be proud of"** Kara looked at his eyes and saw what he meant by that. He really thought he did not deserve her even if she had done bad things in her time as well. The fact that he was a monster at one point in his life still had him confused for a while, but not anymore. That doubt was completely gone from his eyes now. Instead of dark shadows, his eyes were bright with the love he held for her in his heart **"I thought I had fallen hard for the other Kara. I should have known better, I fell in love with you so badly and it was so painstakingly obvious that even the younger me here told me I had it so bad there was only way that I could make it even worse"** Kara looked at him and chuckled. **"Well, here's to making it even worse. Would you still give me your forever, the way you did the first time we met?"** He took a deep breath pulled out the ring and knelt on one knee and spoke clearly in Kryptonian. **"Kara Danvers, will you marry me?"** the shock was visible on her face, even on Clark's and Alex's, the two people that knew the alien language you saw that they did not expect that. The response didn't even take her a full second. The way Kara felt was like the whole world was coming to a standstill around them because of the way her heart was beating almost ready to jump out of her chest.

 **"Yes! Yes. Yes. A thousand times yes. I will marry you, Barry Allen"** she replied in the same language with visible tears in her eyes. The feelings that were flooding him from her side were clear however. She was ecstatic, madly in love and held a happiness he had never felt coming from her. Not since they had gone together out on that solitary special date that turned out to be something that they both needed. What he was planning suddenly became clear to her. This party that they were **"invited"** to and the **"special"** event that was about to happen. This was it, they were the special event and their friends made it possible. Barry took out the ring from the box and put it on her finger. Once again she was stunned. **"Is this something that you designed yourself yet again, Barry Allen?"** she asked with a confused face on which the tears were still visibly flowing.

 **"Well, there isn't a tradition that signifies anything related to an engagement on Krypton, so … I just made a little combination. A love bracelet with a marriage bracelet in ring form. Don't really think you would mind"** He replied seeing her cry

 **"No, I don't at all. It's true, we didn't really have anything like that. Still, this is amazing. I love the way it's crafted and what it signifies. Thank you so much for this. I love it"** She replied to him. The couple kissed in the light of the torches since by now it was almost night time. It didn't surprise her at all when a bunch of people came out of the house clapping and throwing glitter all over them as the lights in the venue all came to life at once.

 **"This was definitely less corny than your proposal"** Henry smiled at the younger Barry who scoffed.

 **"Hey, at least Caitlin loved it. It doesn't matter if you think it was corny, you weren't the one meant to accept it"** He replied while his dad laughed.

 **"Congratulations are in order I see"** Clark came out with Lois hugging his cousin who was shocked to see him here. Not as much as seeing Cat and the others. **"No, I didn't think the proposal was corny, Barry. I also didn't know you spoke fluent Kryptonian. That was a total surprise. Hearing a language I have never heard come out of anyone's mouth except my own cousin and her sister. You planned this for a long time, didn't you?"** Clark looked at the man who had a large goofy smile on his face and nodded furiously.

 **"I thought the beautiful alien deserved a proposal in her own language. Of course she deserves way more, but that's to come. I have planned this for a long time, even longer than you think"** The couple went away and mingled with the crowd. Lois was the newcomer so she had to meet everyone, so Clark thought this would be a good time to do so.

 **"Congratulations, I hope you two are happy together"** Joe came and shook his hand. Older Barry knew what that meant. The old detective even if he had his younger self still regarded him as a son. Someone that had his family taken away from him could only appreciate that. The man's warm smile almost made him cry. He hugged him as hard as he could and Kara returned the same hug she was given a long time ago. Joe returned to meet the people that he hadn't and introduce his date do the ones that were new.

 **"Congratulations. I don't even know what to call you to be honest. I already have Barry who's like a brother so I guess that would make you a brother as well. I hope you two are really happy together, from what I've heard that you went through in your time, you sure deserve something like this"** Iris told him rather bluntly. Eddie was there with her. The couple thanked them, Older Barry smiling and almost cracking a tear at the fact that Iris would consider him a brother. Kara knew what had happened with her before and didn't say anything.

 **"Well that took you long enough"** Alex came to offer her sentiments **"She would have probably asked you if you didn't by the end of the year"**

 **"What do you mean?"** Old Barry looked at her and in a few short sentences she imparted what Kara had told her that day when she asked about the bracelet. His face literally fell and Kara started blushing profusely. **"So you were thinking the same as I did for a longer time than I did, didn't you?"** he asked looking at his beautiful fiancée.

 **"Indeed. I was like you told me earlier. If you had asked me that a few months ago ... I would have probably hesitated. Not anymore. I know what I want and the only thing that I want right now is you, with me, for the rest of my life"** Kara told him with a stern tone, but her eyes were still watering.

 **"Alex is right. That took you long enough. I saw the connection between you two ever since you fooled me with that double trick when you gave me an interview"** Cat smiled from the sidelines **"You could see there was chemistry there from 50 miles away without needing to look for it. I'm happy for you two and I do hope you enjoy your life together"**

 **"Well done, Barry"** Oliver and Felicity came to greet them **"It was obvious Kara had a fascination with the married dude over there, but you two, you just click. Also mind if I ask you a question?"** Older Barry nodded **"What took you so long dude? It was obvious that she wanted to be by your side for a while. Heck, I even saw that when you helped us back with those machines."**

 **"Ollie, I'm a speedster that lived in a future that doesn't exist anymore. In that future I loved that Kara. I couldn't just come back here and just say, hey how about you marry me, since I know you from the future and shit. That would have been out of line, also pretty creepy. I had to take my time and see if Kara could love me with all that I had done behind me. That's why it took so long, Mr. Grumpy"** older Barry smiled The two went away only to be followed by Henry who was holding Tina's hand.

 **"So, the older son I'm not supposed to have decided to finally take the step forward with his beautiful alien girlfriend"** Henry spoke clearly but with a clear joy in his voice. **"Yes, I can't believe that just came out of my mouth. There was a time when I regarded UFO's as supernatural and now I'm talking to a double of my son that just proposed to his girlfriend that was born on another planet. This just shows you how much of our lives have changed in the last few years"**

 **"Yea, dad. I had to. I wanted to. I needed to. Well you understand. She is the one for me. Besides, normal lives are boring. I would take these guys any day"** Barry smiled at his father who shook his hand. He looked around at the people that were here, every one of them family or close friends and he smiled brightly.

 **"I think you two are perfect for each other"** Tina jumped in **"Congratulations and hope for the best for you two"** she smiled. Everyone came to show their support for what the new couple was about to do. Felicity and Thea looked at the ring and yelped a few times, something that was completely normal for the blonde but totally out of character for the archer. Ray came over as well.

 **"Hey Ray. Since you already have a wedding under your belt. Mind adding another notch?"** Kara asked him bluntly.

 **"Wait, you want me to be the minister at your wedding? You two barely know me. Not that would be any surprise at all since those two invited me the same way"** He responded quite surprised.

 **"You might be right Ray. Kara might not know you that well but I do. In my timeline Cisco died. The person who made all the tech to support me and the portal to travel through universes so that Kara could get to me was you. We spent countless hours in the lab together and you told me a lot of things, including what happened to your fiancée. After what happened you became one of my best friends. I never had the time to mention that to you. So while you might say we barely know you, that isn't true. Which is why I would be happy if you would accept to be the minister at our wedding"** older Barry told the man who was confused surprised and shocked.

 **"Don't worry Ray. The confusion will pass. That's that happens when you have a fiancée that has lived in a future that no longer exists. So what do you say?"** the blonde gave him a bright smile waiting for an answer.

 **"You got it. That's what I say. You two have got yourself a minister"** He shook older Barry's hand

 **"Wonderful. Exactly what I wanted to hear"** he smiled. The two stepped out on the dance floor as a slow song was playing. A slow dance in each other's arms was everything that they needed to the world would feel right. It all lead to one long kiss, something that some of the others started to whistle at them from the chairs that were set out. After a bit his double joined with his wife in doing the same thing. From the sidelines Oliver was talking with Joe, Henry with Tina, Clark with Lois and Cat.

 **"Doesn't that seem weird to anyone? I mean sure, I would understand two people from the same universes having the same pairs. But this is a bit irregular don't you think?"** Henry commented

 **"Universes don't really work as you think, Henry"** Oliver smiled. **"Besides, both of them come from the same universe. Here. Just at different times in their lives. The younger one had Caitlin by his side for a long while. It made sense that they would click. The older one as far as I understood it from them, he fell in love with his Caitlin, but she died. So from that perspective nothing it different. But you of all people should know that even if the person you love most in your life is gone, doesn't mean your life ends"** He looked at him and the way he was holding Tina's hand.

 **"This is all confusing to me, but if it's all as you said, Oliver. Then we are seeing nothing but reality. A person who at different points in their lives will have different choices and different outcomes. Since the older one lost his Caitlin and got over her loss, it would seem fit that he would fall for someone else"** Cat offered an opinion. **"Although to be fair. I can't even imagine the Barry from my universe with anyone else other than Kara"**

 **"Cat's right"** Clark interjected **"I can't imagine him with anyone else than her. But that is maybe because we haven't been given the full picture. I think the only two that have it are the two Allens that are dancing now"**

 **"A bit of information can always change your perspective about something. For better or for worse. That's the way that the world works"** Tina added to the conversation.

 **"I don't really care, to be honest. As long as they have both found the person they want to spend their lives with. Who even cares if they aren't the same. In the end its their happiness I'm happy about, that simply does not include wondering why they don't have the same person they love"** Joe stated clearly and the others saw the truth in his words. It didn't really matter who was with who as long as they were happy. The group could see how happy they were. Younger Barry with his Caitlin and older Barry with his Kara. They smiled looking at each other knowing that there will probably be a wedding very soon that they will have to attend.

The party lasted well into the night with everyone dancing with everyone almost like you would do at a wedding. Nobody cared, they were happy for the couple that decided to tie the string. Everyone was transported back home, nobody was surprised seeing older Barry and younger Barry eat 30 pizzas each and produce time remnants. Caitlin wanted to help herself, but she got sidetracked taking care of little Alex, coming back a bit later. Since the older one was the fastest his time remnants took Oliver, Felicity, Ray and Thea back to Star City. While the other ones including both Barrys and Frost took everyone home. At the end of everything, there were just the people that were normally there. Barry and Caitlin, Older Barry and Kara and Cisco with Bette. The time remnants started to clean up the place while the people sat on some chairs to rest. Caitlin had brought out their son for some air while they were all resting, prompting the blonde alien to forget about everything and start to play with him. She did that for a while and then sat down herself.

 **"So you helped this little devil plan all of this huh?"** Kara smiled at the other couple.

 **"Well. Of course we did. Why wouldn't we? We knew this was going happen sooner or later. But we didn't want to say anything so we wouldn't jinx it"** Younger Barry replied.

 **"How could you have known. Wasn't it all part of the, you know, grand master cosmic plan?"** Bette smiled while they took places on some chairs to rest.

 **"Bette, if you'd have heard him the first time we met him how he talked about Kara. You would have understood"** young Barry replied.

 **"And if you`d have seen how Kara was acting when me and Barry were in the other universe that would have given you a clear picture of what was going to happen. This was a sure thing. Or at least as a sure thing as we could make it. That's why we sent you to that universe. You two were perfect for each other, if you would iron out your differences"** Caitlin smiled.

 **"I have said it before and I will say it again. You two are my heroes. I don't know how you managed to do it or what went through your head, but you managed to give me a life that I never thought I could have ever again. Thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart"** Older Barry told the two.

 **"Barry is right. Caitlin you saw how bad I had it for your husband back then. When you told me about the "surprise"** you were sending me I thought you were joking. I still remember you telling me that I should get my own because yours is already taken. But when found him in that meadow my heart skipped a beat. I thought it was a cruel joke you wanted to play on me. Of course that left my mind pretty quickly because you were my friends so that wouldn't work. The same sentiment that comes from my fiancée comes from me as well. Thank you for sending him to my universe" Kara said with tears in her eyes even though Barry only felt from her happiness and love.

 **"You don't have to thank us. We're just glad everything worked out. Speaking of which. Cisco has something for you"** Caitlin replied and the engineer handed the two new shields.

 **"I thought it would be annoying to switch shields from one costume to the other so I made you a new one, Kara and since you both asked me for about the same thing. I made them the same thing with a slight difference. Kara yours is the same as the other one. You already should know how you can change shields on the suit. Yours Barry is a house of el shield with the lightning bolt on top. Kind of like these two have. Only instead of the S, there's a snowflake. Even though the Snow has gone from a particular person's name"** The engineer quipped.

 **"You know I didn't want to hyphenate. What would we have done if there was another singularity that opened above the city"** Caitlin chuckled and everyone else started to laugh. They all knew the inside joke that came with.

 **"The first rule of time travel, you don't speak about time travel"** Older Barry cracked a joke and everyone started to laugh even harder. **"Thank you again for the help with this. Its rather late, we should go home as well"**

 **"But first, a small surprise. You two should get up in the air. Barry, whenever you're ready"** Cisco replied. The two went into the air. Old Barry had no idea what Cisco had been planning even since the fluorescent paint was nowhere to be found. As they gained more and more altitude they saw the lawn in the back yard light up. It held a simple message nothing more. **_"I love you, Kara Danvers"_** The colors were beautiful and it looked like the grass had caught on fire. Kara put her hands to her face and realized she was crying. She also figured out a moment later that she had dropped Barry which she had been holding. Weirdly enough, the speedster was next to her. He was rotating his hands creating two vortexes of air that were keeping him steady.

 **"Wait you can fly now too?"** She looked at him with a surprised face.

 **"Not fly. Just hover and even that with quite an amount of effort. I didn't really want to crash into the ground from 10 Km up into the atmosphere, you know?"** he chuckled but she saw that he was starting to pant, the stunt taking quite a lot out of him. She grabbed him again this time not letting him go

 **"I love you too, Barry Allen" She couldn't stop her tears but she was happy beyond belief. They both floated back to the ground. Where the engineer was waiting with a large grin.**

 **"So was it worth it?"** he asked.

 **"Definitely worth it. Thank you, Cisco. " Kara replied.**

 **"Totally worth it. We should go though. I think we have troubled our friends long enough"** older Barry smiled toward the person that was now _his_ Kara.

 **"You don't trouble us at all. You know we enjoy when you visit. But you`re right, we should turn in too. Cisco? Bette? Are you staying?"** Caitlin asked.

 **"Yeah, there more than enough room and we don't want to disturb you to take us home as well"** The engineer answered smiling. **"You two, take care of yourselves. Congratulations once again"** He took Bette's hand and they left toward the house.

 **"So here we are. Alone again like we had been that day back in the forest. Only this time none of us are alone. That must mean something has gone right in the world"** Younger Barry smiled at his older version.

 **"Something has indeed. Good night you two. Take care and while we can drop by always, why don't you drop by on us from time to time. I don't think it's that hard to get Cisco to make you two breach generators, is it?"** Kara replied.

 **"No it's not. We actually might ask him to do that"** Caitlin agreed and the four stood up. Older Barry created another breach with his ring through which the two stepped through back to their own dimension and home. The Allens stood by and watched as the portal closed giving one another a knowing smile. Their plan had succeeded and they were truly happy that the speedster that seemed to not have a place anywhere in time or in space had finally found someone to call his own.


	29. Simian

Barry and Kara were out in the park taking one of their usual walks, some of the few times that they actually got some time for themselves. Between saving the city and working, they only managed walks and sitting home in front of the TV. Barry used to joke that they have no social life, but they didn't really care. Kara was not the person that enjoyed parties and Barry enjoyed more of the time spend with her than with everyone else.

 **"This is so nice, spending time with you and not worrying about anything."** Barry voices his thoughts while the blonde was smiling

 **"Great, now you jinxed it. I'm betting a home cooked lasagna that we get called by someone in the next 10 minutes about some murder or an emergency somewhere"** Her face suddenly grinned.

 **"Fine, I'll take that bet. I haven't eaten home cooked lasagna in such a long while, that it doesn't matter if you cook it or I do"** The speedster cracked a large smile

 **"Well that's no fun, a bet is supposed to have a payment at the end, not something you enjoy doing"** she tried to sound offended but failed as soon as he saw his smiling face.

 **"Well you said it, not me"** Barry smiled and took out his phone and set a 10 minute timer for their bet. Surprisingly enough nothing happened in those 10 minutes which meant that Kara lost the bet. She didn't really mind because all the cooking that was done usually they did it together. She got even more annoyed when 2 minutes later the phone rang.

 **"Seriously?!"** she looked at Barry

 **"Well you still lost, I wasn't the one that set the terms on that bet"** The speedster grinned widely. Kara took out her phone and answered. Alex was calling, Winn had taken a bit of leave and she was monitoring everything on his behalf for a few days. She didn't want to do it, but since there was nobody that was familiar with the system that was in place except her and Hank she had been relegated to desk duty until everything came back to normal.

 **"Kara, there is a metahuman attacking the weapons factory outside of town. We got the alert after the shift master reported casualties. You two should get over there as fast as you can"** Her voice was worried

 **"On our way"** She answered and closed the line. In a few seconds they were changed in their suits and sped toward the weapons factory. The person could apparently grow some sort of armor that protected him from impacts. Kara went in first since there was no Kryptonite detected anywhere and hit him hard square in the jaw. Much to her surprise the person took it standing, his feet leaving long marks in the ground, but the armor didn't change. He restarted moving toward the weapons factory, completely ignoring Supergirl.

 **"Supergirl, I think he just decided to ignore you"** the flash quipped throwing two bolts at the armored figure that was continuing to move toward the entrance of the factory.

 **"Let see him ignore this then"** Kara went down to the ground and started to hit the armored menace with her freeze breath. The armor started to freeze but didn't seem to have any problem in keeping even the coldest temperatures at bay. Kara continued until Barry after a little preparation hit him with a hypersonic punch. The impact sent the guy flying straight into the factory, but in the slowed time scape that his powers offered him, he saw the armor cracking

 **"We need to keep bringing on the pain. You froze him and my punch managed to crack his armor"** Barry told her mentally, which made her smile.

 ** _"One super icicle coming up"_** she quipped and they both flew back in. The man had gotten up and was going to the exit. He came to get some kind of electrical component that the two had never seen before. Kara started to blow at him super cooled air that started to stunt his movement. After a few minutes his lower legs and torso started to freeze, prompting Barry to keep hitting him with supersonic punches. The armored figure seemed to take it standing, the moment that the ice was hit off of him he continued to move toward the exit completely ignoring the two heroes.

 **"Kara, x ray him. He's acting like he's an automaton, this can't be a real human being, nobody would ignore us so vehemently and try to accomplish his goal."** The speedster told his girlfriend who nodded and did what he asked.

 **"I can't see through the armor, I don't know what kind it is. The places that he has no armor on look human, no metal just skin and bone"** Kara replied to him. She started to freeze his back and from another punch that Barry threw at him the armor over his face cracked and fell off. The man's eyes were fixed in on point, they weren't moving around, he rarely blinked and looked like he was caught in his own world. Supergirl came down and punched him squarely in the jaw which made him fall on his side apparently unconscious. Barry made a visible grimace which she caught on .

 **"What's wrong? You look a bit disconcerted"** She inquired

 **"I have seen this before. This is the look of someone who is being mind controlled. Why I know this look so well, because one of the enemies I fought repeatedly in my timeline was someone that had these kinds of powers. A gorilla called Grodd."** He replied as they were speeding toward the DEO to put the man in a containment cell.

 **"A gorilla with mind control powers? A product of the particle accelerator explosion?"** the question came quite fast.

 **"No, actually, the particle accelerator just boosted his intelligence to the point where he had those powers. In reality in my universe he was experimented upon by Harrison Wells. The military wanted psi ops. Persons that could interrogate anyone and get all the information they needed. Kind of like what J`onn does. To that effect they made a contract with STAR to develop gene therapies that would give people increased intelligence and psionic powers. He was the subject of those experiments"** Barry tried to explain in detail what had happened.

 ** _"STAR conducting experiments on animals? How could that be possible?"_** Kara looked at him rather strangely as they imprisoned the armored person into one of their containment cells at the DEO.

 **"You keep forgetting, STAR Labs didn't always have Caitlin and Barry Allen as owners. There was Harrison Wells too, which you now know was the Reverse Flash. He made some quite questionable decisions in his life, trying to build the accelerator so he could create me and go home with the aid of my power. This is one of many in a string of those bad decisions"** The speedster stated bluntly

 **"Ah. Yeah I keep forgetting that. So this gorilla had its intelligence enhanced and the particle accelerator took it even further. I assume you have dealt with it in your own timeline?"** Kara inquired s the two changed back into their clothes and sped back to the park.

 **"Yes, multiple times. I always managed to foil his plans, but when tried to catch him he was always one step ahead. I was close to catch him a few times. Once I even managed to put him in my pipeline, but he escaped when we had a … malfunction"** Barry stopped himself from revealing more.

 **"Why do I have the feeling you aren't telling me everything?"** Kara looked at him rather annoyed.

 **"As I have learned later, some things that happen are pivotal moments in any timeline. I cannot say more because while being from a future that was erased, I don't want my future to affect this one. If we come to that point then I will share with you all I know, but until then, it's safer that I don't"** Barry tried to excuse himself and she understood that some things have an adverse effect if they were known in advance

 **"That means the event you can't tell me about is of great importance. We'll get to it when we get to it. So about Grodd, you were saying?"** she returned to the original subject

 **"He is very resilient, his body can take a lot of punishment and he has enhanced strength. I don't know if he's at your level, but he is well above of that of a normal human being. His main mode of attack is a barrage of psionic blasts, waves of force that can literally flatten you against a wall. I have seen him use that against me a couple of time, but while he cannot catch me, you might be vulnerable to such a shock. Another thing is that he can project images in your mind, pain, suffering, bring out memories that you buried because they were too painful and wanted them gone. Through those if successful he can mind control you. I know because he did it once to me, then pit me against the people at the labs"** he said with a sickened face.

 **"I suppose you didn't kill them, since you told me what happened later"** the blonde stated

 **"This was after Cait, Cisco and the others were killed. They were new people at the labs. Some of them you already know, like Ray. Others that you have yet to meet, like Professor Stein and his wife, Clarissa"** The speedster cleared that up as the two sat on a bench.

 ** _"So what happened?"_** the question came again.

 **"You did. Somehow a part of me was still active and I couldn't hurt you. Just the same thing that happened that time I was mind controlled here. You managed to put me into a cell and Ray came up with a circlet to jam the mind control waves that were invading my mind. With that, we managed to put away Grodd for good. He did try to take you over after me, but failed miserably, apparently even with his genius level intellect he couldn't hold a candle to the mind of a Kryptonian"** Barry smiled at her giving her a short kiss.

 **"At least that's good to know. Which means you have to be careful"** she smiled.

 **"What I don't understand is how there is one of them here. You guys didn't have the particle accelerator explosion, so whatever experiments were done on apes, he would maybe be human level, but not the one that can mind control. That is what I'm actually worried about. Where did he come from?"** the speedster told his fiancée with a worried look in his eyes.

 **"Your guess is as good as mine. Probably even better since I'm still not used to the whole time travelling dimension hopping aspect of this exercise"** She replied. Their stroll was again interrupted but a phone call. This time it was something different. Someone at the DEO let out the person that they had fought and now he was lose inside the base. The two flashed back as soon as possible only to find that the mind controlled person was actually someone they knew. The agent in charge of the detention center, which now wanted to let everyone out to create more chaos. The two knocked him out pretty fast, they didn't wasn't a repeat of what happened that time when everyone escaped.

 **"Alex, Where's the tank?"** Kara sked arriving in the control center and seeing that there were only 3 people there.

 **"The tank? Oh you mean that guy with the armor? He is trying to get out, but it's strange, it seems that he doesn't have a mind of his own."** She replied.

 **"He doesn't, he's being mind controlled. I reserve judgement as to who that could be yet"** Barry replied and Kara realized that even if Barry had extensive knowledge about that subject it didn't mean 100% that it was what happened there.

 **"Is there any way to get him out of that trance?"** Alex asked pretty bluntly

 **"I don't think so, no. Unless we have J`onn attack his mind and try to free it. Can you do that without leaving him as a vegetable?"** Kara asked the Martian who was listening patiently.

 **"Yes, now that I know what I'm dealing with I can probably release him from the clutches of whoever is controlling him"** he responded and morphed into his original form moving through the walls of the base going toward the attacker. He did so without much effort, the man who he had freed suddenly returned to normal and looked at him with a surprised face. The Martian decided to put him back in his cell, even if he wasn't at fault for what happened, the case could be made that he could be mind controlled yet again and used for other nefarious purposes.

 **"Good. It seems that J'onn has got this. I guess we can go back to our walk in the park."** The curse seemed to continue because as soon as Kara finished saying that their phones rang.

 **"Danvers, Allen, there's been a murder, which might be in your jurisdiction. I need you to get to an alley off Hyde and 23rd. A detective is already there, but the way he called it in, it's in your ballpark."** Chief Singer told the two.

 **"On our way, Sir"** Kara replied and they sped out of the DEO going through their lab at the NCPD to get a CSI kit and moving all the way across town to the address that the Chief had forwarded to them.

What the found there was a bit gruesome. A corpse that was missing half its head, it looked like his skull has been ripped in half, and the brain was missing. Another detective was waiting for them who smiled when the two came into view. He was a junior who had worked with them on other cases and new the pair well.

 **"So what do we have here? Besides the obvious fact that the guy it missing his brain"** Barry asked while Kara took the CSI kit and started gathering evidence.

 **"John Arturo. He was a scientist that worked at STAR Labs in Central City. His main area of expertise was something related to human enhancement. I'm going to call the labs later today to get more information on the person. As for what happened, it looks like the guy was beaten to death then his brain was extracted from his skull."** The detective put the two up to speed.

 **"Why would someone kill a scientist and take away his brain. What are we doing here, creating a new Frankenstein's monster or something?"** Kara joked.

 **"Who knows, maybe someone wanted a sexy scientist and got a bimbo's body and put the guys brain in so she could be smart"** Barry continued her joke making the new detective look at them with a really strange face.

 **"This is something that I have heard from other people who had met Grodd, including another sentient gorilla by the name of Solovar. Apparently, as smart as he is our gorilla still has animalistic tendencies. Those tendencies sometimes make him kill and eat the brains of others because he thinks he can absorb the knowledge they possess that way. This attack could have been Grodd as well"** Barry told Kara as the detective kept putting them up to speed on what he had found

 **"That means this particular scientist had some information that Grodd required. It wouldn't make sense to eat his brain otherwise, unless what you say is true. By the way, when you say that you heard that from someone. Was that actually proven? The fact that he can indeed absorb information if he eats the brains of his victims?"** Kara inquired.

 **"No, we could never prove that he could do that. That required studying him in a controlled environment and feeding him brains which was never considered. First because he could control people that were experimenting on him and second because nobody wanted to do that. He might have been a villain, but nobody deserves to be experimented on"** Barry replied quite sternly and quickly to her question.

 **"Detective Allen, I'm going to need a hand, or else we might spend the rest of the day here"** Kara told him. She noticed that the young detective was keeping him from doing his job and with that he gave her fiancée an out which he took instantly

 **"Sorry, I need to help Detective Danvers with the evidence. Let me know what else you come up with and please try to find out what his specialty was at STAR Labs. That will help us immensely"** The speedster told his colleague who nodded and left.

The two started their normal procedure of gathering evidence from the crime scene. Kara was scanning the area for bits that were not visible, while he was trying to find things that were visible. He did manage to get something first, a set of four hairs which looked about the same and were scattered all over the crime scene. Kara noticed a blood stain what was out of place and went there and collected it. She scanned the body for any other things and discovered a print that was on the man's neck. It was in the same place where the throat showed bruising which meant that it was the attacker's.

The victim also had some strange pieces of glass on the back of his legs. The two realized that the corpse was probably dragged and this was not the primary crime scene, but they couldn't find any sort of trace as to how the body had been deposited there. There was no trail, no direction, nothing. Just a body that had been bleeding which showed clear signs of being dragged. The second interesting thing was the fact that the victim had some sort of grey dust on him, which was nowhere to be found around the crime scene. They took a sample of that as well since it might have provided a clue to where the body had been initially mauled. Kara with her superior vision noticed a track mark on the man's neck as well.

 **"Hey, mind taking a look at this? What's the first thing that comes to mind?"** Kara pointed at what she saw

 **"Looks like an injection mark, or something that could be done by some sort of dart. Do you think he was kidnapped and then killed?"** Barry realized what his fiancée was talking about.

 **"Of course. Now it all makes sense. You saw the drag marks, if he was drugged first that means he was taken somewhere else and killed"** Kara spoke her mind.

 **"Let's get all of this back to the lab. The ME cleared the body and the guys can take it back if we need more evidence"** Barry replied as he motioned for the coroners to come pick up the corpse and the rest of his head. The two walked back for a bit and then sped back to the lab where they started their tests. Barry went to the morgue and got some blood samples to run. Those results yielded exactly what he thought, there was a sleeping agent in his blood, something that was readily available over the counter, except the dosage would have put him out instantly. On the other side of the room, Kara was running the speckles of residue from the drag marks. She started with one set which proved out to be just regular old fashioned dirt, but with a twist, it had some residue of motor oil in the mix. The other set however turned out to be bits of secured glass, something that would have been used in safety glass.

 **"Barry, do we know anywhere in the city where safety glass would be used and preferably abandoned. Considering I found motor oil in the dirt that the man had on his shoes, the only place I could think of was something that makes either cars, or a refinery of some sort"** She looked at him

 **"Nicely done, Ms. Danvers. That would be exactly the type of place I would look for"** Barry got up and went to the computer where he put some search parameters in that would yield the desired results. Kara blushed at the praise he was giving her **"As far as the results show up, there is only one abandoned car factory and one refinery. But the refinery is not abandoned. I don't think they wouldn't have reported a large talking gorilla by now"**

 **"Unless someone is stopping them… as in they are being mind controlled to shut up, or someone is playing with their memories to make them forget something like that even exists"** Kara brought up an interesting point.

 **"I have never heard about him being able to play with people's memories, or erase them, the way J`onn does. He can only bring them to the surface and use them to control you. While he might have that power, I would venture not, which leaves just one alternative. He is mind controlling someone in the facility to hide him"** Barry concluded. The analysis on the hairs was done and it was no surprise. The hairs were simian in nature, coming more specifically from an ape.

 **"We need to go check those locations. What do you think? Do we take these along?"** she pointed at the guns **"Or maybe just go directly with this"** and motioned toward the pendant which held her suit. Barry knew what she was asking, since she couldn't be too obvious in case someone was watching them.

 **"First for the refinery and second for the car factory"** He smiled. The two changed into their costumes and sped to the abandoned car factory. Kara used her vision to scan underground while Barry was running around inside the abandoned building to find out if there were some clues to be collected or maybe something that would point them in the right direction.

 **"Underground's empty. Nothing there that would even classify as a hide out. One is a large tank of gas, which is not lead shielded so I can see its empty and one is a basement which I can only see that it looks like a parking lot and that one is empty too. Did you find anything yourself?"** The alien asked the speedster

 **"Nothing. There is no clue that anyone has been here in a long time. No tracks, no marks, even the fact that when I came in I stirred a lot of dust is a testament to the fact that this thing is truly abandoned. I guess we need to go to the refinery"** She nodded and they both sped back to the precinct and put on their cop clothes and walked out. At the entrance they ran into Chief Singer.

 **"Where are you off to in such a hurry?"** he asked seeing the couple that was moving as fast as they could without giving away their powers

 **"We found some evidence on the dead man that might have come from the refinery. Some of the dirt that we found in the drag marks on his feet contained oil and mud. The safety glass that's used in the storage tanks that need to be checked was there too"** Barry told him stopping for a bit.

 **"Go and take care of yourself. That sort of evidence doesn't bar a warrant so if you go in there you go to snoop, ask questions, but you won't have backup, so be very careful"** The Chief made clear that since they didn't have a warrant that was all they could do.

 **"Yes, sir. We'll be careful"** Kara smiled at him and the two stepped out of the precinct into an alley and flashed in the vicinity of the refinery. As they stopped Barry ran and a Flash remnant came with him. That one went away

 **"While we're here, don't use your powers. I think the gorilla needs to be in proximity and in sight range to unleash his mind control. As long as he doesn't do that, he won't know who we are. But there is a possibility that the people inside are mind controlled"** his thoughts trailed off prompting her to continue his thoughts

 **"Which means that we might have to fight them. But if we use our powers, Grodd will know who we are. Which is why you made that time remnant, to get us out fast if shit hits the fan"** Kara smiled at him

 ** _"Precisely. See? You even know how I think now"_** he gave her a grin as they were walking to the reception area of the refinery. There was a person there.

 **"Hello, We're Detectives Danvers and Allen, from the NCPD"** the two displayed their badges" We have come into some evidence that there might have been a murder committed here last night. If possible we would like to talk to your shift supervisor or manager" Kara smiled politely at the woman who was there.

 **"Our manager is out meeting with some clients, but our shift supervisor should be around. Let me call him and see where he is. Go up those stairs, then take a right and you should see his office. I'm going to tell him that someone is looking for him and he should meet you there"** The woman replied just as politely.

 **"Thank you"** Barry responded and the two went on their way. As they reached the office they saw a small bearded man that was watching them intently. Barry noted it was something strange about him, since he looked completely out of place for the refinery. He had no safety helmet, he didn't wear any kind of overalls and his job seemed simply to watch. The two went into the office and sat down on the couch waiting for the man to appear.

The same man that stood out for Barry came into the room sitting down behind the desk.

 **"Hello, Detectives. My name is Andrew Girard. I'm the shift manager. I head you wanted to talk to me?"** He was polite, but something in his demeanor and his body language told the two that he wanted them out of there as soon as possible.

 **"Thanks you for seeing us on such short notice, Mr. Girard. Can you tell us if you had strange things happen in the refinery the last few days?"** Barry inquired.

 **"Nothing out of the ordinary. Well, although the fact that there was a delivery truck yesterday that came a day early to get some of the tar that we have produce while refining the crude oil. " The man answered quite calmly.**

 **"There has been a murder in town today and we found evidence on the body that would suggest he was killed somewhere in the vicinity. Would you mind if we look around maybe we can find something?"** Kara asked the man who was a bit surprised.

 **"No I would not. Just get a hard hat and make sure you don't go into the areas that have danger written on them. I wouldn't like if two detectives died or got severely burned on my watch because they were not careful"** the man smiled at them.

 **"All right. Thank you for the help"** the two got off the couch **"Can you tell us where we can get said hard hats?"**

 **"Yes, there"** he pointed to a room opposite the office in the main area which had a mesh door. They could see it was a storage area which held several supplies. The two went precisely where they were told, but as they got a hat each, Barry felt something inside that was not supposed to be there.

 ** _"Don't put it on. Look inside"_** he told Kara who immediately turned the hat. Inside there was a black steel looking circlet that was apparently held in place by a few clamps. Since the hard hats were white, the obviousness of the circlet made the two think that someone would need to be a bit stupid not to notice it. Or held down while someone put them on. Beside the man that they had just talked to everyone else was wearing one.

 ** _"Any idea of what this actually is?"_** She asked him while putting back the hat on the shelf that it was originally on.

 **"Not a one. It looks like something we built in my timeline to help me fight the mind control, but beside that, I wouldn't even begin to fathom the purpose that it serves"** He replied. As the two turned, they saw that all the workers on the factory floor turned to watch them. The whole scene was pretty creepy by their standards, because as they started to walk to the outside, all the heads turned to see what they were doing. It was like they were all in a sort of hive mind situation. "I'm not even going to pretend that's normal. Something is definitely going on here"

 ** _"Yeah, we should get out and come back. This doesn't look good at all to me either"_** Kara thought to him, but when she finished two of the workers were already lunching at her with knives. She managed to avoid them quite easily, applying just enough pressure to take them out. As the two fell onto the floor the other workers all raised their heads and started to attack them. Barry and Kara were back to back and holding their won against the onslaught that was heading their way. **_"I wonder where that time remnant of yours is. We would need a bit of rescuing right now"_** Before she could finish her sentence the two were out and far enough away from the refinery as Barry's remnant smiled.

 **"Thank you, that was fast"** Barry told him.

 **"No problem. I heard Kara so I thought it would be good to come in. My time however is running out so, I'll see you some other time"** the remnant smiled and ran off disappearing into the speed force.

 **"He heard me? But how, I couldn't hear anything from him"** Kara looked surprised as the two were running toward the precinct to leave their clothes and come back

 **"Time remnants are still variants of myself, Kara. They will all hear you, because they all have the same bond I have with you. However you will more than likely not hear them, because you only have the bond with me. That would be the best explanation I can give you. But since I don't know how this works exactly, I can't say for certain"** Barry smiled.

The two superheroes went back while changing clothes. The shift manager was surprised to see Flash and Supergirl coming to pay him a visit, but the two were already well aware of what was going on. Kara started X raying the workers that had attacked them earlier. They all had that black band inside their hard hats. Barry ran around taking them off and Kara just used her heat vision to break the circlets. As that started to happen more and more people became aware of where they were and their surroundings and started to panic. The superheroes told them to get out as fast as they could. The shift supervisor was unmoving and the two could see why. Behind him a black ape with one of the black circlets on his head was growling.

 **"Flash. Wherever I go I meet you. You need to die"** The shift manager lunged at them but was immediately put down by a punch from Barry who was in his stance. Grodd, instantly ran at Kara, which countered him easily. The gorilla was surprised, she countered him instantly using her super strength to throw him away. **"Who is this? I have never met someone as strong as you are"**

 **"Wouldn't you like to know"** Kara smirked and hit him again. She was hit by a series of images. Her in the pod, the fact that her planet exploded, the loneliness she felt when she came to earth. Barry felt everything and fought back. The images were painful for her, she was stopped in her tracks. In her mind a battle was fought, but her strength and the way that Barry was looking at her she managed to pull back and purge the invading images from her mind. **"I didn't really want to see that again, you are going to feel some pain of your own right now"** She lunged straight at the gorilla and hit it with all her strength, making it fly a few meters behind before catching its footing.

As they stopped Grodd started to attack the Flash mentally while trying to keep Kara at bay. Barry started to see images of his mother, the night that she was killed over and over again. The images were skewed, it seemed like his dad killed his mother, the day that he had to kill Caitlin, the pain that he felt that time instantly went over the bond and Kara started to feel what he felt. She immediately started to fight back herself. The images in Barry's mind changed, the time that his dad killed his mother, something that looked like an angel of light came and took him away. He recognized Kara and smiled at her. The attacks stopped, Barry flashed at the Gorilla and hit him with a hypersonic punch powerful enough to throw him quite a ways away. While the two were speeding toward the gorilla, a dark figure came out of the shadows and produced a blue breach and the gorilla jumped through followed by the woman, leaving the persons in a daze.

 **"What the hell just happened?"** Kara almost yelled

 **"Seems that there are other people than Cisco can produce breaches. Which means that he might have gone somewhere on another earth. We need to talk to Barry and Caitlin, maybe he went to their earth, which would be quite a pain in the ass"** Barry said with a worried tone. The heroes managed to get everyone up and made sure that nobody was wounded, and sped back home. Barry pressed the call button to make a connection to the other universe, but to his surprise the line was not connecting.

 **"Something's up. The line isn't going through"** He told her while she was looking rather strange at the fact that her breach generator wasn't firing.

 **"You can say that again, I can't produce a breach to the other universe either. Could the frequencies get mixed up somehow?"** She asked quite surprised.

 **"Kara, these are universal frequencies, this is not something that changes because of a little problem. IF the universal frequency is changing then we can have a very big problem"** Barry looked at her and she felt his worry.

 **"We really need to find out what is happening. I feel how worried you are about all this which means it can only be something rather bad. We will get through it, together. WE just need to find out what "it"** is first" Kara smiled and gave him a large hug kissing him softly. He nodded they changed back to go watch a movie.

* * *

AN : Finally brought both stories into sync. Next week? A new chapter of bound by love. Except updates on both on alternating weeks from now on, or as the stories develop :D


	30. Storm

It was a couple of days since Barry and Kara weren't able to contact their friends on Earth 1. The fact that neither their communicators nor the breach generators worked brought great concern to both of them. That wouldn't be a problem in itself, but it wasn't just that. A while after the Grodd incident the two received an unexpected call from the DEO. It was week end so they just enjoyed their time off. As much as they had it. Since crime never slept, they would be often called on weekends by Chief Singer to take care of one thing or another. The two lazily got up and had some breakfast and the flashed to the DEO. The call didn't sound urgent so there wasn't any immediate threat. They were greeted by Alex and Winn.

 **"To what do we owe the week end recall you two? Don't you take a break?"** Kara looked at her sister

 **"Well… you know"** She smiled. It was strange to see her here, now that she had a girlfriend **"We have been detecting issues in and around National City. Remember that program you designed to track Livewire?"**

 **"Yeah, the one that monitors changed is electrical activity. What's with it?"** Barry asked quite surprised. She knew the villain was closed up in the prison they had

 **"It started to act up. We have been getting pings form all over the city and when Winn extended the range of that, at least from what our satellites say, electrical disturbances have been sighted everywhere on the planet. It all started back when you had your problem with Grodd"** Alex replied quite confused.

 **"Electrical disturbances? Show me"** Barry told Winn and the man expanded the search area to encompass the whole city. Dots started showing up and disappearing out of nowhere. There wasn't only one, so it would be unlikely that they were only made by one person. There were a lot of them. **"This looks like more of an atmospheric disturbance pattern than anything else. We need to go check. Winn, send a real time data feed to our displays."**

 **"What are you thinking, Barry?"** Kara asked as she changed into her suit.

 **"There might be something that is affecting the normal cycle of storms around the world. I know for a fact that the software I designed to track Livewire was not made to track any other sort of electrical activity. If it somehow turned into a storm detector then it means the electrical output of those storms has changed somehow"** the speedster replied and Kara understood immediately what the problem was about. The two superheroes sped out of the DEO and started to track the disturbances that kept appearing and disappearing on their displays. The process was annoying, most of the time they were too short lived and even with his speed, Barry would get there a second later after they closed. Kara decided to let him carry her because he was moving way faster.

They finally managed, after about an hour to get to a detected site while everything was in motion. What they saw was strange, multiple lightning strikes around the same area that seemingly came out of nowhere, left a smoking crater in the ground and then disappeared. The weird part is, it was a ground level, surrounded by buildings with lightning rods.

 **"As far as I know, this shouldn't be happening. The strikes appear out of nowhere and they hit about the same place. There goes that good old saying that lightning never strikes in the same place twice"** Barry told her as they watched the event unfold.

 **"Does any of the knowledge you have offer any kind of explanation as to why this is happening or what the cause might be?"** Kara looked at him quite baffled.

 **"No, not at all. The only thing that comes to mind is that somehow the climate has been changed and the air is supercharged with static electricity to warrant these kinds of strikes"** the speedster spoke him mind. The two went back to the DEO where Winn was trying to see if he could find a pattern to where the events would turn up next. Barry then realized that the start of the storms was when Grodd had left.

 **"I was thinking, maybe the breaching that we kept using might have had an adverse effect on the weather?"** He said.

 **"You think this was all caused by our breach generators?"** Kara looked at him rather quizzically.

 **"No, the breach generators work on fixed points. I wonder if there was someone that could come and go like Cisco. Like that woman that opened a rift for Grodd after we almost captured him"** the answer came

 **"So you mean, someone like Cisco left a breach open wither willingly or by accident and it started to screw around with our weather patterns?"** Winn spoke him mind

 **"Something like that. If I remember correctly the way Cisco explained the breach generators is that they are designed to create a breach and close it after the person has gone through. We never thought that there would actually be someone who can create breaches here on this earth like Cisco"** Barry argued.

 **"You might be right, but now we can't call back to earth 1 and the breach generators don't work. Which means that whatever that person did, it screwed up the frequency of this universe so badly, that the tech is confused and just fizzles out"** Kara came into the conversation with a very good point.

 **"Do we have someone that can actually tell us what is happening? Like a physicist? I don't think we can come up with anything ourselves"** Alex looked at the two. Barry however had a different idea.

 **"I don't think this is something related to the weather anymore. I remember from my timeline how Cisco used to make a breach detector. Maybe it's time we make one of our own. Since we apparently have people that can jump universes at will and we don't know who they are"** Barry thought out loud

 **"So what do you plan on doing?"** Winn asked him quite interested in what he has to say.

 **"I will need you to upload an electro photography program into the satellites where you have access. It will scan for a specific frequency which is this one"** the speedster wrote something on a piece of paper then handed it to Winn **"That is the frequency of exotic matter events. In my timeline, Professor Stein and Cisco came up with this to be able to track breaches. While I don't think this will help us with anything, I suspect that whatever is happening was triggered by the initial breach that Grodd went through"**

 **"That might be true. Anyway, how long is that going to take?"** Kara looked at Winn who was furiously typing on the keyboard of his workstation.

 **"Anywhere between 30 minutes and 6 hours. The bandwidth we have for the satellites is shoddy at best, so uploading a new program for them will take time. Meanwhile, I don't think there's anything you two can do"** Winn responded going back to work

 **"Keep tracking the anomalies, we're going to start patrolling the city in case there are people who need help. Those lightning strikes can be devastating to buildings if they managed to make a hole in concrete"** Barry said instantly and Kara agreed. The two started to hunt the energy signatures as best they could to make sure that nobody was hurt or killed whenever they hit.

Most of the hits were, as surprising as that was, in non-residential areas of National City, but as the storm moved, so did the strikes. The first issue they had was one of the anomalies started a fire at the refinery where they caught Grodd. Everyone was panicking and running when the two swooped in and managed to keep the flames under control, Supergirl with her freeze breath and the Flash, who simply ran around the fire sapping it of the oxygen it needed to burn. They had a bit of work with that one making sure that the large plant didn't explode, but they came out on top after an hour of arduous work.

As they went back into the city a new strike hit the top of an old style office building sending piece of it tumbling into the streets below. The two managed to make quick work of the rubble, with heat vision and lightning strikes, making sure that the people who had been hit by smaller pieces would be sent to the hospital.

The large issue that came with the strikes was the fact that the inner city DEO sanctuary was set in a high rise and by the way the storms were moving they would be hit in half an hour to an hour. J`onn, Alex and Winn already started to shut down the parts of the building that were not needed also getting ready for a lightning surge.

 ** _"Do you have any idea if the DEO has surge protection?"_** Barry asked Kara after pointing the direction the storm was moving.

 **"No idea. But if we noticed the way it's going and we're on foot I'm pretty sure Winn noticed it too. They should be doing everything they can to keep the HQ intact"** she replied as another strike hit one of the high rises in the city and started a fire. The two were on point, the fire being put out by the time the fire department was on the scene and all the people taken out from the burning areas.

Patrolling was never this time consuming and energy consuming. They got so hungry that at one point they just got pizzas and went into the DEO in their costumes to eat. Kara was severely depleted from the myriad of heat vision uses to vaporize small rock chunks and Barry wasn't too good either. Taking people out of a burning building at high speed was not something that was easy on the energy. At one point in their sorties they could swear that they had seen Cisco trying to contact them, but it was only for a second. The man appeared, the ghost form the two were used to already when he wanted to communicate between universes and then disappeared. That happened a few times. Other times they saw breaches opening, but not staying up for more than a second and then closing.

 ** _"I think this isn't happening just here. I could swear I saw Cisco trying to say something"_** Kara looked at her fiancée who nodded ** _._** As the two stopped in the street, something peculiar happened. They saw a ghost image of themselves which lasted only a few seconds, in which Kara was watching Barry disintegrate. The speedster recognized the effect instantly.

 ** _"That's how it looks when you get erased from the timeline"_** He pointed to Kara at the image who was slowly dissolving. She had heard before from his dreams what it was supposed to look like but actually seeing it, even for a few seconds shocked her to the core.

 ** _"Is it painful?"_** the alien blonde asked after seeing the image of the speedster she loved being wiped away from existence.

 **"I really don't know. It never happened to me. Actually, that is what was supposed to happen the moment Barry and Caitlin got their powers. I was never supposed to exist in their timeline. But as you know I didn't"** He told her truthfully.

The strikes were getting closer and closer to the high rises, while some hit very close to the lightning rods and were directed into the ground with not much of a problem, the ones that were between the buildings continued to wreak havoc and start fires. People were panicked and they decided that it was safer to stay indoors rather than go outside where you could be electrocuted.

 **"I would suggest you come inside as well. The frequency of the strikes is increasing. We don't want to test what would happen to you two if you get hit by lightning."** Alex told them through the comm.

 **"We would, but people still need our help up here. Winn, can you extrapolate how bad these storms might actually get? I mean now they are bad enough, but it seems to me like the strikes themselves are occurring more randomly and with increased frequency"** Barry inquired

 **"No, I cannot. I don't even know what's causing them. All I can tell you at this time is that you are right. The intensity and the frequency is mounting. If this continues, there won't be a place you can hide from all the lightning."** Winn told them with a rather worried voice. The two tried to call the other universe again but all they got was static and a disconnection icon. Since they saw Cisco they thought that the others might have some answers about what happened.

At one point when they were helping an injured child that was under a pile of rubble, Kara and Barry were working side by side. There was a flash above them and Kara moved to shield the speedster from the shock. The two fell motionless on the floor while the child had the presence of spirit to run away from the strikes.

The two found themselves in a blue tunnel of light, floating. Barry already knew what this was, he had been here before, before them an image of Caitlin appeared and spoke to them.

 **"Ah, Barry Allen. We didn't think we would ever see this version of you again. But how did you manage to bring a guest?"** the entity spoke without flinching.

 **"Where are we?"** Kara asked surprised. **"Caitlin? What's going on? Why are you here?"**

 **"That isn't Caitlin. This is the Speed Force, Kara. Remember? I told you about them. They are the ones that judged me when I came back to change the timeline for my own purposes. I have no idea how I came back here"** he told the entity truthfully

 **"We have been watching your exploits on earth 38. You seem to have returned to the person you once were. Even if you have changed the others. You managed to get here because of her. The lightning that hit you gave you an infusion of power from her own cells. Because you were forced to adapt, the speed force in your system brought you both here. For all the times you were alone you kept training and even when you could not travel in time you still trained. That is to be commended. Your sentence still stands, you cannot travel through time and you cannot still use the speed force to jump dimensions, but we have recognized that you are a person that still wants to do good. In that regard, the power infusion that you just received from Kara Zor-El, will remain with you, strengthening your connection to the Force that grants you your speed.**

 **As for you, Kara Zor-El. The lightning has changed you as well. While you are not a speedster and you cannot tap into the speed force like Barry Allen, you will become quicker than you have been before and if said person wants to, you will be able to absorb some of his Speed Force to become even faster than you are. We know you have mastered the absorption and redirection of kinetic energy around you, Barry. This is no different, only she will be the only one which you can provide power and speed directly"** the entity which was in the body of Caitlin spoke quite clearly.

 **"Why are you doing this? I have broken your laws and I have been sentenced. Why are you helping me?"** Barry asked

 **"Because you have changed. With your anger and rage you had the potential of upsetting the balance of the speed force enough that everything would have turned to dust. Now, with this one beside you, you no longer fight for yourself. The rage and pain are gone and you have returned to being the hero that you once were. That is to be commended and in this case, rewarded. Use your new found speed to continue the legacy of the hero you know as the Flash. You and your younger self should not even exist in the same universe, but that is our mistake. One mistake we have made and we acknowledge it. We should have never let you return back there, but that is how it is. Mistakes were made, that lead to something good in the end"** The entity spoke quite clearly.

 **"How do we get out of here?"** Kara asked surprised after the entity explained everything

 **"Just run with Barry"** She spoke back to the speedster **" You can give her speed to be able to exit this place just like you can. Goodbye to both of you, you will probably not return here in your lifetimes, but if you do, we will be waiting"** the voice gave way to Caitlin's sweet words

 **"And for god's sake, try to not get hit by lightning again will you?"** She chuckled and gave the two a bright smile. For a little while they saw the Caitlin they knew in front of them who was worried about their wellbeing. Kara already knew what she was like, Barry had known her for a long while in his timeline and some in this.

 **"Yes, we will try. Thank you for this. With her by my side I feel like I can do anything"** Barry smiled at the entity that was slowly moving away from them.

 **"Good luck. Now, RUN"** the voices came and the two started to run towards the other end of the corridor with their hands intertwined. As they reached the exit, they saw a bright light and when it subsided, they were both back on the pavement in the middle of the street in National City. Smack dab in the middle of the flurry of lightning strikes.

 ** _"Did we just …"_** Kara started to talk but got cut off by him

 **"Yes. We were in the speed force. The entity you have seen are the ones that protect it, its council so to speak. I had no idea that a non-speedster could even go there. I think that lightning that hit us must have done something"** Barry got up and zipped to help some people that were running.

 ** _"Barry, your lightning"_** that was all that Kara could say before the speedster realized that his own lightning was no longer orange. It was bright blue. **_"Did the strike do that?"_**

 **"I have no idea, but I'm digging the color. Even though it was the same color of the man that made me lose my child. What do you think?"** he smiled to the blonde alien who was flabbergasted.

 **"I think it's amazing. It looks so beautiful . Even more than the usual one you put out. It's almost like Caitlin's But I suspect her has that color because of her ice powers"** She responded seeing him give her a bright smile.

 ** _"Glad you like it. Something tells me you are going to be seeing a lot more of it in the future"_** Barry pointed to the fact that when she got up and sped to shield someone from a falling rock, as long as he could redirect some of the speed force to her and she was in range, she started to give off blue lightning as well. A smaller trail than her fiancée, but a trail nonetheless.

 ** _"How am I giving off lightning?"_** she looked at the trail she was leaving by speeding around him.

 **"Whenever I give you speed, that is the end result. You don't give it off naturally, you`re now absorbing some of my power"** Barry smiled and she realized she was way faster than she was before.

 ** _"Barry, look at my power meter"_** Kara told him while she was speeding around after checking it herself once. The fact that she was running around him almost creating a tornado didn't mean anything. Her power level continued to rise steadily as Barry kept funneling power into her. When he stopped, the power meter stopped ascending and the lightning that she produced stopped as well.

 **"This is awesome, as long as I can let you leech of the speed force in my body and I act like a conduit, your own power recharges. At a slow pace, true, but still."** He told her with a surprised face and she smiled brightly.

They continued to help as best they could, as the storm continued to get worse. Until at one point, everything stopped. The sound of the thunder could not be heard anymore and the sky began to clear. They started to clear the streets and help the firefighters get all the fires under control. While they did that, they were presented with a surprise. Flash and Frost came to the rescue. Caitlin was killing out the fires easily with her ice powers, while her Barry was charging her from below while getting people out. The ones that were already there rubbing their eyes at the sight of yet another flash and a flying woman clad in ice that was helping them. With the couple's help they were done way sooner than they anticipated so, they decided to go back to the DEO to talk.

 **"What are you two doing here? How did you manage to get to our side? We tried to contact you after the storms started and neither the line nor the breach generators would work"** Kara spoke with a surprised voice.

 **"Of course they wouldn't work. The breach generators only work between dimensions"** young Barry smiled at the two.

 **"What do you mean between dimensions, isn't this still earth 38?"** older Barry looked at his counterpart quite confused.

 **"Not anymore. Welcome to earth 1. It seems that the storms were a side effect of our realities merging with one another. That's why we came here to help. We didn't cross over, we just ran from Central City all the way here"** Caitlin smiled

 **"How could that happen? I mean there is no known weapon or power that could provoke something like that. We could have all been obliterated"** Kara had a bit of anguish in her voice, remembering from the time she has spent in the pod coming to earth some of the theoretical data about parallel dimensions.

 **"We could have, yes, but we weren't. Which we're thankful for. There were indeed three possibilities. Gideon made that very clear. We merge, one dimension shatters, or both dimensions shatter. I guess we stuck out on luck at which was case here"** younger Barry gave the group a large grin.

 **"As for how it could happen … well it seems that Grodd was to blame for that one. Or better said, someone that was with him. A woman who cannot control her breaching power that well to make sure that all the portals she opens are actually closed. Grodd fled from earth 1 to earth 38 a while back, after he tried to blow up Central City"** Caitlin started but got interrupted by older Barry.

 **"We have fought Grodd recently. If what you say is true then he wasn't even the one on this earth, he was the one from yours"** he explained.

 **"Did you manage to capture him?"** Caitlin asked.

 **"No. As he was almost down for the count that same woman opened a breach to somewhere else and the two were gone. What do you mean she was responsible?"** Kara voiced her questions

 **"When she left earth 1 the last time she was injured. I suspect the breach they went through was unstable, but instead of closing, it just fizzled out. The event horizon became invisible and the connection continued to remain open. While that happened, the breach grew, our satellites detected it at the size of the earth and it still kept growing. With something that big connection the universes, yours started to change its vibrational frequency closer to our, forcing the two to merge. You are now part of earth 1, which explains why your breach generators don't work. Cisco didn't build them for intra dimensional travels"** Young Barry explained quite eloquently.

 **"Are there any side effects to this fusion?"** J`onn asked visibly worried that something might go wrong.

 **"Not as far as we`ve detected. The Wave Rider and Gideon helped us assess the damage. It seems that people that were on both earths just merged, the ones that were not remained. The buildings and landmarks seem to be the same. That is why there is now a CatCo in National City. Also we now have a Gotham and a Metropolis. Which means Kal and his girlfriend should be here as well. Maybe you should go give them a call, Kara to make sure that they are all right"** young Barry replied and the blonde went immediately to do what he proposed.

 **"This is going to be a pain in the ass. Now there's one earth with two flashes. Who gets to be who"** older Barry scoffed.

 **"I suspect you can still be Barry Allen. We just have to modify the records in such a way that I have a twin. Sorry old man but you will have to make do with my age from now going forward. As for the Flash, I really don't know"** Younger him replied. **"I don't have a problem with it being two of me if we're in different cities, but if we ever have to come together and work, it will be a confusion fest. Besides, how did you get blue lightning, I hope you didn't mess around with any sort of Drug?"**

 **"No, no velocity for me, this happened when a lightning bolt from the storm that just ended hit me and Kara. We went back to the speed force. They explained that even while I still have my sentence, the fact that the lightning hit us made me get a large power boost from Kara's cells and they were going to let me keep it. After we came to, my lightning was blue, not orange. Also Kara can syphon my speed force to make herself faster, so when she does that … This happens"** older Barry pointed at Kara who was running in a circle as she was talking to her cousin. She had heard him and gave them a small demonstration. They could see that she gave off the same lightning she did.

 **"It seems that now you two are perfectly compatible. I guess you could call it a wedding present, the speed force gave you the ability to share more between you two"** Caitlin smiled.

 **"Then I guess it's better than I return to being Menace. At least the then the people will be able to recognize us"** his older self replied.

 **"I don't think you need to do that. You have worked hard for that name, as have I. We'll make do with the confusion, somehow"** Younger Barry voiced. Kara came back after talking to her cousin.

 **"The two are all right, they managed to come out of the merger unscathed. You were talking about changing your names?"** She asked nonchalantly.

 **"Well, considering that there are two flashes now, yea. We were considering the possibilities."** Old Barry replied.

 **"You can still be the Flash, all you have to do is put Blue in front of your name since that's how our lightning is now. That sounds cool as all hell. Besides, I kind of wanted to rebrand myself as Super woman. Somehow Supergirl doesn't really define the person I am anymore. I stopped being a girl a while ago"** She gave her Barry a large grin prompting Caitlin to jump into the discussion.

 **"Ok, how about we don't discuss your sexual exploits, you two. So. Do you really want to rebrand yourself?"** She inquired quite seriously.

 **"Well if Kara is ok with that, I don't have a problem in changing my name. Remember, I was the Flash, then Menace, then the Flash again. I can always change my name into something else as well as the suit. Besides, Kara is right. Blue Flash sounds pretty cool to me, besides that name will be only used when we're together more than likely so people can know which one is me and which one is you. While you`re not in the city I will probably still remain the Flash"** older Barry smiled at his fiancée.

 **"The lightning still looks cool. That's what we came to tell you. The two universes have merged and it seems you two have gained a new understanding about how everything works. Not a real surprise."** Caitlin smiled.

 **"My identity will still be Barry Allen I suppose, right? Since you had Felicity make it that we're actually twins."** Older Barry asked his younger self.

 **"Yes. Or you can go by Henry if you want. The people in our inner circle already know how to differentiate us and since we are in different cities I doubt that us having the same name will provoke any sort of misunderstanding."** His younger self replied with a smile on his face.

 **"Yeah, but you two are public figures. You own STAR Labs. That's something that most people know about that name. Me on the other hand, well I'm just a mild mannered CSI for the NCPD"** older him chuckled.

 **"It doesn't really matter. Since the Allen family is filthy rich… it means you are too. By the way, I had my broker total out the folio you gave me. They totaled about 500 million. So if you ever want to see how being filthy rich is, you can always get that money back"** younger Barry chuckled.

 **"I don't think I will. Maybe get another apartment later on. Who knows, maybe we can splurge on a penthouse like you two. That way we can both hold parties for all our friends. But for now, I'm happy where I am, with the woman I love"** older him smiled and grabbed Kara and held her close to him, caressing her hair.

 **"It doesn't matter. What I told you before still stands. If you need money, you come to me. For anything, from a date to a new house. Understand me, bro?"** Young Barry smiled

 **"Yeah, bro, I got you. Wow, this feel weird. Since I never had a brother, well beside someone like Oliver, us being twins now is a bit weird."** Older Barry cracked.

 **"We'll get used to it. Welcome to the family, you old goat"** Younger him extended a hand which his older version shook sternly **"As for you, Kara, you'll be part of the family soon enough, not just an honorary member like you were until now"** He grinned.

 **"Yes I will. I can barely wait "** the blonde alien smiled kissing her fiancée on the cheek.

 **"With that said, these are our cells. Mine and Barry's. The second line connects directly to our suits. The third number under the couples is the line directly to the cortex. Anything else you might need, you know how to contact us. Take care of yourselves, and since now you seem to be faster than the two of us, and you can share speed with your girlfriend, I suggest you don't be strangers. You can probably reach Central City faster than we can reach National now. We need to go back, I miss our child"** Caitlin looked at the two who smiled at each other brightly, you could see the happiness on their faces. Barry nodded to what she had said, he missed the little tyke already and they were only gone for less than an hour from his side.

 **"Oh we will. You can count on that. Take care you two and we'll see each other around. Don't worry about it"** Kara smiled at the two speedsters that said their goodbyes and flashed out of the DEO, with Winn and Alex grinning behind them.

 **"So that's you two in a few years, huh?"** Alex cracked seeing Kara and Barry started to blush red. **"Also, what was that about you not being a girl anymore for a while?"**

 **"Oh, shut up"** Kara grabbed a piece of paper from the table rolled it up and was running after her sister at normal speed around the DEO. Barry was grinning madly. He knew exactly what she had said. Night was setting on National City and in the DEO, Supergirl was still chasing her sister with a rolled up piece of paper while Barry and Winn were watching and chuckling. Life was good.


	31. Rebrand

Barry and Kara were still in the process of dealing with all the stuff that had happened in the last while. The universes merging, him getting the upgrade that he did and her learning to control her new speed. She had found that her own perception had been altered, when she was receiving energy from Barry the world seemed to stand still and her speed increased tenfold.

She had a new found admiration for the way that speedsters saw the world. Furthermore, she now understood why the speedster even if moving at the insane velocity he did, it always seemed like he knew everything along the path he took. She noticed it herself, the world slowing down as she ran and the fact that she could invariably notice all the stuff that was happening around her.

Since they decided to rebrand themselves, Barry had told Cisco to remake his suit, something that the engineer was excited about. It took him a bit to do what was asked of him, but the new costume seemed nice. It wasn't completely red anymore, as the one his younger self wore. The tone had changed, his torso was dark red with the shield of the house of El in the background, on top a blue circle with a gold lightning bolt. From each side of the shield, diagonally, there were blue lightning bolts that went toward the back, creating a beautiful contrast between the colors. The mask was still the same, only this time it was blue, like the blue Kara had on her other suit. The pants were blue however with large red lightning bolts going down the sides and the boots were dark red, with blue lightning bolts. The costume change was complete.

There was a small change that the two observed in all the photos that they kept of Supergirl. After the dimensions had merged, she wore a mask. The same mask that she had been wearing when she had been helping on earth 1. That in itself was not a problem, since the costume she would be wearing already had a mask. Cisco modified that as well. The cowl that the other suit had which was detachable was made part of the suit. Thanks to some quick thinking from Cisco, if the suit detected any sort of kryptonite the cowl would pop up and around her head. Barry noticed that it looked like her suit was changing. The belt was replaced by a thinner one with less batteries, the reason for that being that now since she could leech off Barry's speed, the power cells could always be recharged, since she put off lightning as well. The two were at home, Kara was cooking Lasagna for both of them since she lost the bet made prior, Barry, like his usual self was helping. He never liked staying on the sidelines when anything house related was done.

 **"So you plan to wear the other suit permanently now?"** He asked quite surprised.

 **"Well, yes. I don't see why I shouldn't. I do want to shed the girl in a skirt theme. While I am still that person, the things that I fight for have changed. I was too blind to see it, but ever since that day when you almost died from the wounds that you took for me, the person I always put ahead before anyone was you."** Kara said nonchalantly while cutting some tomatoes.

 **"You mean what Cat asked you?"** Barry replied prompting a surprised look from her. **"I saw the video footage later"**

 **"Then yes. That is what I am talking about. That day when I answered Cat I spoke from the heart. I would indeed kill for you and die for you. That is why I now want to change the way the people see me. Supergirl fought for everyone equally and almost never for herself. The string of failed relationships that I had should tell you droves about that. Superwoman will still fight for everyone, but not equally. The first person that will always take precedence will be her family. While that indeed means Kal, the term applies to you, even more than it does to him. Even if we do get married, you have been family for quite a while. Or at least that's how I considered you"** the alien blonde looked at him and gave him a sweet smile.

 **"Same here. I have always considered Kara family, when I came back here and I met you, well I don't have to say any more, I think my actions speak for themselves."** Barry replied and she remembered how he had always been there for her doesn't matter how bad everything was or when she just needed someone to talk to

 **"Yes, your actions indeed speak for themselves. But that is why I want to have a name change. Maybe it will denote maturity, maybe it will denote hope. I do not know what the people will say about it. But I do not really care. Supergirl is indeed no longer. Now I am Superwoman, your superwoman."** Kara snaked her hands around his chest and kissed his cheek, the speedster returning the kiss a few seconds later.

 **"Then I guess we should talk to Cat. She is the best person that can help us with this whole name changing thing"** Barry replied and picked up his phone, dialing the media mogul. **"Hey, Cat. Do you have some free time?"**

 **"Hello, Barry. I kind of don't. After that whole storm debacle, people wanted to know where they came from. So I'm trying to run with that. But we can do lunch like we have always done"** She answered

 **"That would be good, except we want to be in a place where we can be sure we don't have ears. We have some … of that other type of business to discuss with you. Also I would suggest you blame the storms on global warming or something to that effect, we do know what caused them and will share that with you when we come over, but the truth will more than likely either get you branded as a crazy woman or just tank your credibility"** Kara chimed in

 **"Ah, all right then. No lunch, come over to my house tonight and we can discuss it more in detail. I will take your advice and blame it on something else. I will expect the full story however when we meet tonight. I assume both of you know where I live?"** She inquired sheepishly.

 **"We do and don't worry, we'll tell you everything, just for your information even if you can't print anything related to it, you at least deserve to know. We'll see you tonight after work then."** Barry smiled at his fiancée.

 **"Good. See you tonight"** she closed the line and the two went back to their lazy day at home cooking.

Kara was smart. She grabbed a lot of ingredients, since they were both eating like beached whales. As the food was nearing completion a call came through on Kara's cell.

 **"We have a problem. Your sister is missing"** Winn told her rather worried.

 **"What do you mean, missing. I just saw her two days ago, she came by the apartment to say hello and to discuss some things"** Kara told Winn. Barry knew what she was talking about, Alex wanted to give Maggie a surprise, but she didn't know what to do, so she came to ask the two about something romantic. She knew that if she asked she would never hear the end of this from her sister but in the end she just did.

 **"Two days ago? She hasn't been at work for at least twice that. Are you sure she's all right?"** The voice at the other end of the line was worried

 **"I think she just took Maggie somewhere nice, you do know she has a life outside the Agency, right?"** Kara smiled brightly and Barry started to chuckle remembering the first time that the agent had said that herself in this very same house.

 **"She would have at least called in. She is one of our best agents, which does amount to the fact that she does follow protocol all the time. I would have had no issue with her taking leave and would have given her all the free time she needs, but she needed to at least call in and say something about it"** J`onn interjected

 **"That does seem odd, there have been no activations of the panic button from her part were there?"** Barry inquired the techie

 **"No. Nothing as of yet"** the reply came swiftly

 **"Then we should just let her enjoy her weekend out with Maggie. J`onn you can fry her later about the breach of protocol. Something tells me that she just wanted some days off to spend with her girlfriend"** Kara spoke her mind and heard a chuckle from the other side of the line.

 **"Let's hope you`re right. Have a nice Sunday you two"** Winn replied and closed the line. As the two ate, since the lasagna was done, there was still something in the back of Kara's mind, she was thinking about something and Barry noticed it quite easily

 ** _"What are you thinking about?"_** he asked prompting a quizzical look from the person in front of him.

 ** _"How do you know I'm thinking about something?"_** she asked with a large smile on her face as she was chewing her food.

 **"You get a crease on your forehead when something like that is happening. I have seen it a lot coming from you"** Barry replied

 **"Wow, I'm only 26 and I get creases on my forehead. I'm going to start needing to use creams soon"** she pouted at her fiancée who started to laugh.

 **"Don't avoid the subject, Kara. You know I don't care about the fact that you might be getting those. Heck I will too, and it doesn't really matter, you're beautiful either way"** the speedster replied with a serious face.

 **"Winn was right. Alex is too much of a stickler for protocol to not let them know where she was going. It's not even about protocol, more about being polite to let your boss know that you`re going to skip a few days from work to take your girlfriend somewhere nice. That is very unlike her"** Kara started to explain what the itching in the back of her mind was about.

 **"I know, I guess we do think alike, the Alex I knew is no different than this one. The fact that she left without saying anything is really strange. Sadly, there isn't anything we can do about it. She didn't activate her panic button, she doesn't seem to be in any kind of danger and us just calling out of the blue to see where she is would be kind of a dick move"** Barry told her his reasoning.

 ** _"We should give her a few more days. If she doesn't come back until Tuesday, then we should start looking for her."_** Kara replied while they finished eating. The humongous amount of lasagna was done and the two just plopped on the couch taking a rest from what was the very tiring act of eating like a small mammoth.

 **"I'll go with your gut on this one, I have known Alex a while, but nowhere near the time you have. We'll do it your way, if she doesn't show up until Tuesday, we'll go after her"** The speedster told his fiancée who was grinning.

The two fell asleep on the couch, not really caring about what was happening in the city. It was their day off and quite a long time since they actually had one. They could go anywhere and do anything with their powers but they decided to take the couch and sleep. When they woke up it was already evening.

 **"Wow, we must really be getting old. Did we really just take a nap on a Sunday just because we were tired?"** the speedster broke into a grin looking at her sleepy blue eyes.

 **"I guess we are. To be fair, we haven't had a day off for a long while. Sleep is good, means we can get our energy back faster, who knows when we will get another free day"** Kara replied getting up from the couch and nearly falling when she hit her foot on the table in front.

 **"We would least need a day off on our wedding day. Unless Singer wants to see us dressed like bride and groom and searching for evidence through trash in a back alley somewhere."** Barry started to laugh

 **"I don't think so, since he will be at the wedding anyway. If we have to go, then he has to go. I doubt he will do that. He has shown extreme leniency in how we do our jobs and we have always done it to the best of our abilities. I think he has a soft spot for you and me"** Kara voiced her thoughts. She looked at the clock and realized it was almost 8. They had to get to Cat's house to talk about their so called brand change. The two knew where the media mogul lived, but they had never been to her house before. The surprise came when they saw that she was indeed living on a large property, surrounded by walls as all rich people do, but the house itself was nothing big. As Kara circled the building with Barry, the two saw her on the large balcony that the house had on the first floor and they both landed next to her.

 **"Welcome you two. Take a seat , grab yourselves some tea or coffee and make yourselves at home"** She motioned to the two who were completely taken aback by the familiarity that she showed them. The **"make yourselves at home"** part had a large impact on the two heroes which smiled. **"So, what did really happen with the storms?"**

 **"You already know there are multiple universes"** Cat nodded **" A while back, we fought a gorilla called Grodd. He should have popped up in the daily wanted persons report"** Barry started.

 **"Yes, the one with the mind control powers, that's the one you`re talking about?"** Cat wanted to make sure that they were on the same page.

 **"Yes, that's the one. Apparently our earth doesn't have a Grodd. That one came through from earth 1. The home of Barry and Caitlin. They have fought him as well, he tried to blow up Central City, but he escaped to here"** Kara continued.

 **"He had with him a person that is like Cisco, she could punch holes in between universes. Like those blue vortexes Cisco produces. The problem is, the time when they escaped from earth 1 to here, the breach that was used didn't close. From what we gathered out of that Barry and Caitlin told us, it remained open and started getting bigger and bigger"** Barry moved along the explanation

 **"Bigger and bigger? Wouldn't we be seeing a blue vortex in the sky above if that was the case?"** Cat asked surprised.

 **"We would, except the energy that kept the event horizon of the breach in the visible range for us humans had dissipated. The storms were, in fact, side effects. Because the connection was left open, the two universes began to vibrate at the same frequency, until, eventually becoming only one universe"** The speedster explained as best he could to the media mogul

 **"Ah, explains why I have seen reports of Flash and Frost prowling Central City. Initially I thought that they had come over from their world to help us with something in ours, but now everything makes more sense. They are here because this is their world. Or better said, our world, right now"** Cat concluded.

 **"Pretty much, now you understand why you can't print this. Only people who have had connections with the other world will know something is off. The others will just have a déjà vu effect and will go about their day"** Kara explained while taking a sip of the coffee she had in front of her.

 **"But this isn't why we wanted to talk to you"** Barry began again, prompting an inquisitive look from the media mogul **"As you have seen, now there are two flashes in the same world. While my lightning has changed to blue because of a lightning strike from one of the storms, there's not much way for the people to differentiate between me and … well ... myself. So we decided to make a brand change in the superhero names we use. Me because of the confusion and Kara because…"** he didn't get to finish because she did it for him

 **"Because I don't really feel that the name I'm going by now is the one that reflects who I am now. It doesn't define me anymore, I guess because I'm on the way of having a husband and a family, Supergirl doesn't really work for me anymore"**

 **"That would make sense. So what would you want to call yourselves then?"** Cat inquired.

 **"I'm going to be Blitz. For obvious reasons, that way people will know it's still me,but they can use the added color to differentiate me from my twin. Kara decided on being called Superwoman. We even got costume changes to reflect the new personas. Cisco had a lot of time invested into those."** Barry smiled.

 **"What do you mean your twin?"** The question came

 **"I have told you before, Barry Allen and I are the same person at different times in their life and that came from different timelines. When the universes merged, we both ended up here, the only way that would be inconspicuous is if we are twins. We look the same, talk the same, walk the same and even have the same name. I'm just a bit older, but since this is his universe, I ended up having the same age as he does, or else the twin shtick wouldn't work"** The speedster gave her an explanation

 **"I dug a bit into STAR Labs after the storms, I thought they might have had something to do with it. Imagine my surprise when I found out the owners were Barry and Caitlin Allen. I knew the two speedsters from before, but that seemed a bit too much of a coincidence. Of course now that you told me about the universes merging it makes way more sense"** Cat told them about her exploits

 **"That was pretty much our problem as well. But those two came and helped with stuff during the storm and we had some time to discuss what we should do. He has always been the Flash, he didn't have any other name ever since he became what he is. Me, however, I was many things, including the Flash. Which is why I have no issue with changing my name now. How do you think we should go about that?"** Barry relayed their issues to the media mogul and hoped for an easy answer.

 **"It can be as easy as you recording a message to the people, or as hard as holding a press conference to release your new names. I don't think you want the publicity, so just recording something would be fine. We can even do it here, there's a studio in the house where I did recordings and live feeds when I wasn't in the mood to broadcast from CatCo. There is something that has been bugging me though. Why am I the only person that remembers Supergirl without a mask?"** Cat asked hoping for an explanation from the two.

 **"It's because of the merge. When I went out in the other universe I had a mask on, always. That in turn seems to have been translated in this universe. We have noticed that all the pictures the media took of Supergirl were now changed and she had a mask. Which is fine by me, I kind of always wanted to get rid of the glasses, ever since my fiancée here so nicely put it that I look way better without them because he can see my blue eyes"** Kara talked quite openly but the blush on her face was still there.

 **"Can I see the new suits? I suppose since you already came to me you had them modified previously"** She smiled.

 **"Of course, let's go to the studio though, we don't know which paparazzi might be here with a camera and if we both show up then we would be giving you a bit of a headache"** Barry reasoned and the media mogul saw the wisdom in those words. As they went back into the house the two changed. Cat saw then the way that their suits changed, the color scheme was different, they still both wore each other's colors, but the most striking difference was the fact that their shields were different, reflecting each other's symbol in their own.

 **"You two want to go public about that?"** She pointed at the shields and started to chuckle.

 **"We don't need to go public. The shields will tell everyone what they need to know. Do you think we should? We have discussed this before and I don't think the people care about our relationship. They know us as National City's heroes, not by the fact that we're together or anything"** Kara told her quite bluntly.

 **"It's your decision, but I think you should tell them. Maybe even tell them that you`re married so whenever you two do marry there will be no connection between your superhero personas and the ones you have. It depends on how you look at it. But, from my point of view, the fact that you changed your shields and your names and are wearing teach other's colors, I think it would be best if you say you already are married. So the people don't make suppositions after"** Cat offered them a short solution to their problem as they walked toward her studio.

 **"Wouldn't that be … you know, a bit jumping the gun? I mean sure, Barry has been here almost a year and a half now, but I don't know what the people will say about that"** Kara realized that her being so happy didn't change the fact that Barry wasn't here that long.

 **"Why do you care? You`re happy aren't you ? That should be all the reason you need to tell them that"** Cat surprised both of them with that blunt statement.

 **"Very happy indeed. Then I guess we can just tell them what you proposed. Cat is right, Kara. That will definitely help with not drawing attention to ourselves when we finally make that step. The two heroes would have been married for a while"** Barry reasoned with his fiancée who thought it over and agreed. Cat stood in front of a camera in the studio pointing them at the two heroes that were sitting in the front of a white screen.

 **"We didn't know you could do this yourself, Cat. You keep surprising us with new things every day"** Kara smiled.

 **"You know how I am with people, I would rather broadcast from my own home and not have a slew of engineers and everything else that are buzzing around here. I just take precautions so the audio is clean and the image is good and the rest, the image engineers from CatCo make the broadcasts happen. Start whenever you`re ready, just tell me so I turn on the recording first"** She chuckled. The two heroes took their place and motioned for her to start the recording.

 **"Hello, National City. As you might have noticed, we now have another resident speedster that goes by the same name I do. He is someone I know very well, which is why I decided to change my name a bit so that we could both know who the other is. From now forward, I shall be known as Blitz. Hence the costume change as well, as most have you already noticed, the color of the trail I leave behind"** Barry started vibrating his face at the camera as always. Since the video would be seen by all the people including the ones at the NCPD, his facial features would more than likely be recognized.

 **"You might have followed our adventures and relationship through the interviews we gave CatCo. As The Flash here, or Blitz as he so eloquently renamed himself, put it, I thought it was time for a name change myself. I will be known from now forward as Superwoman. One more thing to clear up, since probably there were people that asked themselves why to the symbols we wear on your chests and out costumes have changed"** Kara continued

 **"We thought that it would be fitting for two people that are currently married to wear each other's symbols and colors. The last sentence will more than likely answer all your questions. Have a good day, everyone and take care"** Barry finished and Cat closed the recording sending it to the CatCo crew.

 **"When do you want this sent out?"** She asked surprising them both. Cat would have always did things as she knows never asking for permission.

 **"Whenever you like, but I would venture, the sooner the better. So the next time Barry comes in town there won't be any sort of problems"** Kara smiled as they sped back into their normal clothes.

 **"I like the suits. Now I know, Superwoman is more befitting for you that Supergirl. No more skirt, no more bright colors. It's like you actually grew up"** Cat smirked at the two

 **"Her? Grow up? Cat I think you're sadly mistaking"** Barry threw a joke and Kara started chasing him around the room **"See? She still acts like a girl"**

 **"Only around you, Barry. Which is what love is. Thank you for letting me know about the whole universe merger. So I should expect now that the two owners of STAR Labs might drop in more in our fair city?"** Cat inquired quite bluntly

 **"We don't know. That is up to them. But they are close friends and they will probably come here to help if we need them. However, we will more than likely go to Central City. You saw the vacation house those two have, it's the perfect place to just chill and catch some sun"** Barry replied

 **"I did indeed, I wouldn't mind going there myself at some point. But you know, work always takes precedence when you run a media conglomerate"** She smiled albeit a bit bitterly.

 **"That's of no consequence, I can get to Central City in less than a minute now with the boost that I got from the storms. Just say when you want to go and we can just take you there even if it's just for a day. I suspect Caitlin and Barry will be very accommodating if you want to work from there as well. Just like they have been for us. If not, I can always buy a vacation house myself somewhere"** Barry grinned.

 **"Huh? Since when do you have that kind of money?"** Cat gave him the stink eye

 **"Before I left the other universe I gave my counterpart a folio with investments I made. I came here without anything, since I wanted a new life. We just found out that the folio in itself was worth about 500 million. Considering the two had already invested them in different endeavors that value has more than likely gone up. So if I would want to buy something like that, all I have to do is call Barry Allen and tell him that I want that house and he will buy it for me. I don't really care about money that much since Kara is all I need, but I do have it and I can use it if the need arises"** Barry explained nonchalantly.

 **"That is good to know, if I ever need more investors to keep CatCo afloat I know who I can come to"** She smiled.

 **"Always, Cat. If you need any sort of help with anything you know you can call us at any time. You have helped us and this city enough for us not to return the favor"** Kara replied quite sternly.

 **"Good. You two should go, it's getting late and I presume you will have work in the morning, as the two mild mannered CSI's that changed the way the police works with the media"** She chuckled.

 **"We should, we'll meet for lunch as always and discuss other less … private things."** Kara gave her a beautiful smile.

 **"Or you can drop by here when you know I'm at home for tea, coffee or just an old fashioned chat. You`re welcome here just like you are in CatCo. I hope you know that. If you didn't, you know now"** the media mogul smirked.

The two said their goodbyes and walked home, it had been a while since they had just walked anywhere. On their way they stopped at Kara's favorite donut shop and got a few boxes of donuts. They reached home and started to eat, while talking mentally.

 **"We did this too. You think the public will react strangely to us being married?"** Kara inquired as she was eating a cinnamon glazed donut.

 **"No idea, you know we can't predict if the public likes it or not. We just told them, however they take it is their own business. Besides, to be perfectly honest with you, I don't really care what they think about our relationship. I know we're two public people with our superhero personas, but some things don't have to be done because we're in the public eye"** the speedster replied to his fiancée.

 **"I don't really care either if they like it or not. They don't have to love our relationship to let us help them. If they don't, then it's their loss. Nothing we can do about it. It's not like the fact that we're married would have changed the way we think and the way we act. For some people that might be true, I doubt it will for us. What our relationship changed in us it did so a long time ago, not because we will have two rings on our fingers"** the answer came quite sternly and with a rock solid reasoning.

 **"Eh, we decided to tell them what is going on with us. Whatever happens after is up to them"** Kara replied

The two decided to give it a bit of a run around the city for the sake of patrolling and because they had too much energy, not really having done anything heroic for the day. Kara enjoyed now just running with him, she loved flying before, but that was because she was alone, in the sky it was always quieter and the view was nicer. Now that she had him for a partner, the rush of wind on her face and the runs they took together was something that she was always looking forward to.

She did however know that he enjoyed flying so for the second part of their patrol she grabbed him and they went up into the sky, both cruising between the buildings at a normal rate of speed. There were people that saw them, some wanted to take pictures, but the heroes weren't in the mood for anything like that. They made themselves scarce the moment they saw any sort of camera. They didn't want anything that would raise questions before Cat would put out the video they both made.

They came back quite late, so they skipped their normal regimen of movies and got out of their clothes and went straight to bed. The two had given up on wearing any sort of pajamas since they decided they weren't needed and the run through the city along with Kara's flying had tired them long enough. Barry was providing her with power the whole time she was flying so they would share the drain. The two fell asleep a few minutes later while the city was continuing its pretty rich, but shady night life.


	32. Dissapearance

The next morning the two woke up because of a call from Chief Singer, they had found a strange man that was killed in a warehouse in the city. Barry and Kara recognized the address right away. It was at the same warehouse they had trailed that assassin with the kryptonite daggers that one time. They thought of it as being a CADMUS safe house in town. Their interest grew instantly as they put on their cop clothes with everything that they came from and sped down to the scene of the crime.

 **"We came as fast as we could, Chief. Where's the body?"** Barry asked and the Chief showed them inside. The person that was now sprawled on the floor with two large gashes across his torso was someone that they recognized.

 **"Chief, we know this person. He was one of the agents that worked at the DEO. Any idea on when he was murdered?"** Kara asked quite distraught, the last time that this had happened they had a White Martian running loose in the base. They didn't want a rerun of that.

 **"Somewhere around 4 AM this morning, Detective Danvers"** The ME approached them with his own conclusions. **"Cause of death in that large gash on his chest. He bled out. Besides that, we have found something that looks like a claw in one of the wounds, but it's structured like nothing we have seen before. I already sent it over to the lab for analysis"**

 **"Thank you, doctor. I think it's time we get to work"** Barry smiled and the two started to comb the premises. Kara stopped in a corner and called J`onn.

 **"Morning, tell me something, did agent Donahue come to work this morning?"** She inquired hoping that he hadn't.

 **"No, he did not. I sent him last night to trail a suspicious figure that looked a lot like Detective Maggie Sawyer that was snooping around a nuclear plant. Why ?"** the answer came

 **"Because he's dead. We found him in that same warehouse we trailed the CADMUS agents. You know the ones with the kryptonite bullets and the knives. He was killed by something that I can only classify as a large animal or an alien, because he has two large gashes on his chest and from one the ME pulled a large claw"** She told the Martian who was very interested

 **"I see. I'll have agent Schott make sure that he doesn't come into work today. Let me know what else you can find out"** J`onn told her and closed the line.

 **"Can you scan the underground for an entrance? I could swear the last time we came here this place had one"** Barry told her mentally while he was gathering evidence.

 ** _"You ok with all the evidence?"_** she asked while taking down her glasses and doing what he asked her to

 **"There isn't really much to get, some blood which is probably his, some fibers that look like they came from a regular suit and that claw which the ME already sent to the lab. It seems very clean in here, even if there was more, I'm sure someone made sure it disappeared right about now"** the answer came and Kara to her surprise found something that looked like a stairwell under one of the corner barrels. She went back and asked a few detectives politely to help her move the weight on top of the entrance. She didn't want to give away anything about her own strength. When she opened the passageway Singer whistled.

 **"And you saw this all the way from over here? Nice catch, Danvers. We should go down and scope the place out. Be careful, we don't know what we can find down there"** He motioned to three of the detectives which already started descending into the hole. They all had flashlights so they had no problem seeing. Barry and Kara went with them after giving the evidence they collected to another detective which was returning to the precinct.

The basement was large and it gave way into a tunnel that they didn't really see the end to. Their flashlights could not go that far into the darkness. Kara however using her vision found something that looked like a power switch. She went to it and flipped it, the large chamber beginning to illuminate. What they saw next was something that they didn't expect. The space was full of some sort of devices that looked like pods. All of them were empty except one. The last pod held a face they all recognized. Detective Maggie Sawyer.

 **"Is she alive?"** Singer asked as soon as they say her. Barry went straight to her and checked her pulse. He found one which was quite strong. She wasn't in any danger.

 **"Yes, she is fine, except in this thing"** Kara looked at the pod and decided to limit the access to everyone to the basement **"I'm going to call in the DEO. This is definitely an alien matter, but what kind, we do not know. Chief, can you close down the area completely until we talk to our source and find out what the hell these things are and how to get Detective Sawyer out of that pod?"**

 **"Consider it done. Get Maggie out of there as soon as you can"** Singer replied and all the detectives went back up. Kara called the DEO where Winn responded.

 **"Winn, we have a problem. Remember you told us that Alex had disappeared for a few days?"** She voiced

 **"Yea, you told us to not worry because she might have gone on a cruise with her girl. Did anything change that story?"** He asked with worry on his face.

 **"Yes, we're at the CADMUS base in town, where those assassins with Kryptonite lost us. In the basement we found a lot of alien looking pods and her girlfriend is in one of them. She is alive, but I haven't seen anything like this before. Can you tell J`onn to meet us here?"** Barry told him while he was checking around for clues at full speed.

 **"He heard you. He's on the way"** Winn replied and closed the line. The couple didn't really have to wait long before the Martian had arrived. He looked at the pods with a strange face, almost like they were something that he had seen before, but could not really place them.

 **"Is there any way to get her out of there?"** Kara asked with worry in her voice.

 **"I don't know. I suspect she is in an induced state of sleep and whatever she is seeing in her dreams is used for information. I cannot be sure there is actually a way of getting her out. That's the problem. Her mind seems to be attacked by probes which have been sent in her dreams to act like information gatherers"** The Martian replied.

 **"What happens if we just pull the plug ?"** the speedster asked nonchalantly

 **"Another thing we don't know, but since the machine is connected to her neural network, pulling the plug could lead to neural backlash and kill her. We need to take this back to the DEO and see if there's a way to get her out. Do you have any idea how long she has been in there?"** J`onn asked realizing the actual problem behind them finding Maggie sawyer here.

 **"No, which begs the question, who did Alex take on that weekend getaway? We didn't have a reason until now to search for her. This does however qualify as a good reason"** Barry told them both. The silent nod acknowledged the fact that Alex could have been in grave danger, or even dead. Hank arranged for a transport to take the pods back to the DEO while Barry and Kara went back to the NCPD to analyze the evidence.

When they reached the precinct there was a big commotion around the TV in the main hall. The two wanted to see why. The clip that they had given Cat Grant was being played. It was interesting for the two to assess the reaction of the people they were working with.

 **"This comes to me as no surprise. I've been seeing what they just told there for quite a long time. If those two weren't in love then I wouldn't know what to call it"** Singer commented without much surprise.

 **"Maybe so Chief, But the Flash is one lucky dude. He has one beautiful super powered wife, what more would you want from life?"** one of the detectives chimed in

 **"I'm kind of sad for them, imagine if they have children and they have their powers. I bet we won't see them for about a year if that happens"** The chief started to chuckle and the detectives joined in

 **"Oh well, at least if we find infant sized holes in walls through the city we know who to call"** yet another detective chimed in

 **"Whatever they do, I'm glad those two finally got together, they look pretty happy in that video. Since they always help other people except themselves, maybe it was time that they helped themselves"** Singer commented and went back to his office. The comments that were heard were not lost on Barry as he stood there and grinned at his fiancée.

Others thought that it was time for a brand change at least for Supergirl, because she probably would want a family of her own and the name wouldn't fit the outfit that she was now wearing. Most of the detectives did notice the shields a while before the two actually said anything about their relationship and as Barry predicted the last sentence in that video put all of their doubts to rest.

 **"This was surprisingly positive. I thought people would receive the news more like a puff piece rather than something that was serious"** Kara told him while they left for the lab

 **"I guess even the normal persons are happy for us, because we are happy. That is a strange thing to say, but it is that nonetheless. At least the people we work with were pretty much positive in receiving the news"** Barry commented prompting a smile from her.

 **"That is a good thing. We have to be careful though, now the people that want to harm us know as well what's happening with us. I doubt they will be surprised anymore when we both show up together anywhere"** Kara realized the bad part of all of that. They left for the lab and started to analyze the evidence that they had from the crime scene as well as some things that they got off the alien machinery in the basement.

All the evidence was something they would have expected to get form the crime scene . Except the claw. It seemed to be made from a type of bone that had a structure like nothing they had ever seen before. The DNA presented itself with another base pair that couldn't be form anywhere on this earth. Kara tried to remember form her lessons if there was any race that would conform to what they found, but could not reach any conclusion. They went down to look at the body again and from the way the cuts were made it seemed like the creature would have to have had at least three fingers all with claws.

The mystery was what type of alien would be able to do something like that. If it was one that neither Kara nor J`onn could think about must have been some new race. Their worry however took them over when Winn mentioned that he couldn't get any sort of fix on Alex's cell. Since she didn't take her uniform the tracker would be useless, but Winn tried that anyway and found the signal coming from inside her locker at the DEO.

 **"Winn, do you monitor the feeds around the city ?"** Kara asked him after going back to the agency

 **"We do, but we don't keep a record that back, our computer systems aren't as advanced as some of the others I've seen. We keep maybe a week's worth of information. Why?"** he responded

 **"That should be enough. Access my console at work and get the face recognition program there and have it run on all the surveillance footage we have. Maybe it will come up with something and we can find Alex."** Barry replied and he did so as soon as he could. He was surprised at the complexity of the algorithms that Barry was using in his software, he even made a mental note to ask him later about how he thought about them. The structure and everything was definitely different than what he had seen before.

 **"We got this off the claw that was stuck in the agent. This type of DNA is definitely that of an alien. The question however is, which?"** Barry pointed at the strand that was across another one of the workstations.

 **"Guys, the face recognition's got something"** He pointed at the screen. Alex and Maggie were getting on a train to Star City **"That's weird. Why would they be going by train? They both know that it would be way faster to go there by air"** Winn spoke his thoughts out loud.

 **"Maybe they wanted some time alone? We can't see if they got into a sleeping car or a normal one so there goes that idea. I think we need to find out what happened. You know who we have to call"** Kara told her fiancée. He pulled out his phone and phoned the other Barry.

 **"Hey, bro. I need Felicity's phone number"** He told his other self quite bluntly.

 **"Sure, is there anything wrong?"** the voice asked.

 **"Alex is missing, we found out she took a train to Star city from here and we need to talk to Felicity see if she has footage of her arriving there"** Kara replied.

 **"All right. I'll send you a text and talk to her directly. If you need any sort of help call us again and we'll join the search"** His other self replied.

 **"Thank you. We will, don't worry"** The line closed and a few minutes later they got a text with the number they needed. Kara phoned Felicity to see if she could get a lead.

 **"Hey, Felicity."**

 **"Kara? I didn't know you have my number. How are you doing, girl?"** the voice from the other side of the line was visibly happy.

 **"We got it off the other Barry and this is my number, not Kara's"** Barry replied with a smile on his face.

 **"Nice. So that whole universe merger was true. Now you guys are here with us. Wicked. Anyway enough of my babbling, why did you call?"** she asked quite seriously

 **"I'm going to send you a picture of my sister, Alex. You have met her before, but I doubt you have one. She has disappeared and the last clue we have from here is that she boarded a train to Star City. Can you see if you can find her for us?"** Kara said with worry in her voice.

 **"Yea. We keep a record of most of the footage around town since now the STAR West servers have been upgraded. What's the time frame?"** the blonde inquired

 **"One week ago at 3: 47 we caught her getting on the train there. Anything after that if you can pull up that would give us an idea would be fine"** Barry added

 **"Are you coming over or you want me to send you the footage?"** She asked

 **"We're coming over. It's a shorter trek than all the way to Central City. We'll be there in a bit"** Kara told her and closed the line.

 **"We're going to go find out what happened. You let Chief Singer know that we got a lead from you guys about the whereabouts of the people that had a hand in Maggie Sawyer's disappearance and we're following the lead to Star City. He should know in case we need to hook up with the police about something there"** Barry told Winn who nodded as the two flashed out the door in their normal attire. The other Barry had brought them some of the polymer that they were using for their own shoes so they could run, even if older Barry had enough control over the speed force to make sure nothing happened, it was always good to make sure. It only took them a grand total of 30 seconds to reach Star City. Barry sharing his speed with Kara made her way faster. They just showed up in the Arrow cave and saw that there was nobody there. A face appeared on screen.

 **"Guys, I'm at STAR West in my office. You know already how to get here. I'll be waiting"** Felicity told them and the two flashed to the building coming up to her office. The people were surprised to see one of the owners come back to the city, surprisingly enough not with his wife.

 **"Next time we should just flash in the building via the window at the top floor. We don't really want people to think that Barry is now walking around with another woman"** Kara realized and face palmed while they entered Felicity's office.

 **"Yeah, that wouldn't have been a good idea, but I'll set is straight with the people here. So they don't start rumors about Barry. The face detection already picked up your sister. They seem to have gotten off the train all right, but after that they simply disappear. The moment they come out of the train station, there are no more visuals. At least until when the software managed to scan. There are still a few days that it hasn't done"** Felicity told the couple that was now sitting on the couch.

 **"Can you do that? I mean stay out of sight of all the cameras in the city?"** Barry asked knowing that in his timeline they actually installed more cameras to be able to keep an eye on Central City and that there wouldn't be any sort of blind spots.

 **"If you know all of them are, then yes, you can totally avoid them"** the blonde smiled and continued to type

 **"What would two women out on a vacation be doing avoiding all the cameras? Although one of them might have not even be a woman, it might have been an alien since we found the real Maggie Sawyer in a pod down in National with some wires attached to her"** Kara said really annoyed.

 **"That's rough. Do you think that alien kidnapped your sister?"** Felicity inquired as she looked over the results of the program she was running.

 **"It's very likely. If Maggie was caught and stuck in that basement since ... who knows when, then the whole relationship that my sister had with Maggie might have just been a ruse form the beginning to get to her and through her to get into the DEO"** Kara said really annoyed.

 **"That would be a bit … shit. But we can't discount that possibility either"** Barry was as annoyed as Kara was. He cared about Alex and didn't want to see her hurt by anyone or in this case, anything.

 **"There we go. Three days ago the two people that you were looking for got into a plane and by the passenger roster I can tell you that they went to Metropolis. After that I don't think if there's anything else I can do. The whole thing sound a bit weird. Why take a train to here and then fly all the way cross country?"** Felicity managed to tell the two

 **"They were supposed to be on vacation, so maybe the fake Maggie was keeping appearances. Who knows. Thanks, Felicity. Can you hack intro metropolis PD from here and see if their surveillance cameras have picked something up?"** The alien asked the blonde quite bluntly

 **"It will take me a while, but I can try. You want me to search for the same traces as here?"** She inquired.

 **"Yes. We have our phones and our suits with us. If you find anything give us a call"** Barry smiled and the two put on their suits, getting a bag from Felicity where they could store their other clothes and weapons.

 **"So, you two got married, huh?"** Felicity grinned looking at them

 **"Wow did that seriously already reach all the way over here? I thought it would take a while"** Barry laughed.

 **"Oh it didn't reach here yet, but I have feeds from National City. That's how I know about your changed aliases and that small fact I just mentioned"** She grinned

 **"We aren't married yet, but we thought since the public kept asking stupid questions and presuming if we are or aren't, we thought to put all of that to rest"** Kara explained the reason behind what they did. They waved goodbye and they both started the trek to Metropolis. It was cross country, but with Barry sharing his speed, it took them only 10 minutes to get to the outskirts of the city. There, Kara thought to call her cousin and tell him what's going on, since they were going to his apartment anyway .

 **"Hello, Clark. We have a little problem, we're in Metropolis in your apartment"**

 **"Welcome. What kind of problem? Is it safe to talk on the phone?"** Kal was being careful after the last time certain people bugged his apartment and he was rightly concerned that would happen again.

 **"Not so much. Can you meet us here?"** Barry asked. Before the answer actually came Clark flew through the window in his superman suit changing as he arrived.

 **"Yes. I can. What are you two doing here? Is this another problem like we had with CADMUS?"** He inquired

 **"No. This is a bit stranger than the whole CADMUS thing. Alex is gone. She left around a week ago, she didn't come to work didn't tell anyone where she was going, nothing. That's not like her. That isn't the issue, this morning we found her girlfriend in an alien pod of some description. It looked like she was there for quite a while. Then we started to look for her. She left National City, went to Star City and then after a few days came here. We lost her trail in Metropolis since Felicity doesn't have the resources and the cameras that she could get from there. So we came here, hopefully we can catch her trail again to see where she went"** Kara explained everything as succinctly as she could without leaving out important information.

 **"An alien pod? Does J`onn know about anything related to that?"** Kal asked

 **"No, he doesn't seem to know or somehow doesn't remember about what the pods signify, but he has told us that they seem to be some sort of device that obtains information from the subconscious mind of the person that is strapped in via their dreams. That information can then, probably, be implanted in a double agent"** Barry explained a little bit more about what they knew.

 **"I don't know what I can do to find your sister, Kara, but I might have a solution on how to find out the nature of the alien that has used those pods. Do you have anything that is part of the alien? Or maybe some DNA?"** Superman inquired swiftly

 **"We did manage to find a claw which has yielded a DNA profile. We can always use that, the main difference is that it has a fourth string of DNA nucleotides, which humans do not"** Kara stated

 **"Take the DNA sample and go to the fortress. You know where that is. While none of us possess the entirety of Kryptonian knowledge, you might be able to find something out there, somewhere in the files"** He replied **"By the way, nice suit and ... I hoped I would be invited at your wedding"** he chuckled.

 **"Oh no, you too?"** Barry laughed.

 **"Yeah, we saw that video that you two made. I had no idea you`re married already, where did you go? Vegas?"** Kal smirked.

 **"We aren't, we just told the people we are so they would stop supposing things about me and Barry. We got annoyed with it"** Kara explained.

 **"I see. Well that will be true soon enough. I'm going to see if I can find out something about Alex. In case Felicity gets back to you let me know"** He smiled and left back to the Daily Planet. Barry flashed out and was gone for a few seconds before he came back with a few pizzas and some donuts for them to replenish their strength before moving on.

 **"I find this a bit peculiar. I understand the travelling, maybe they just wanted to get away from it all, but all over the country and to cities that she has been before? That seems a bit off"** Barry told her mentally as they were chowing down.

 **"She has indeed seen them, but maybe Maggie didn't. Perhaps that was the whole reason for this trip, so that she could go to other places that she hasn't been to yet. We don't know, Alex rarely talk to me about their relationship. I don't even know how close they are, albeit for her to do something like this the two would have to be pretty close"** Kara reasoned while she stuffed a donut in her mouth.

 **"Well the real Maggie at least. I would be pretty surprised if the real one is with Alex and the one that we found is just some kind of clone or duplicate that was supposed to be sent out, but it wasn't done growing or something. I know cloning is possible with the tech we have now, with something as advanced as those aliens have, they could grow something in weeks"** Barry reasoned remembering the discussions he had had with Ray back in his timeline in the ways of cloning. That was something that he had considered back when he was missing Caitlin, to clone her and have her in his life again, then he realized that no matter how much she wanted her back, she was gone. Cloning her meant that there was always a chance that her powers would take her over again and without a surefire way to destroy that personality, every attempt could have ended in disaster, for him and for the people of Central City.

 **"I hope your right with that. If the one that we found is indeed a clone that means that Alex is safe. Maybe we should tell Winn to do that analysis for us"** Kara reasoned.

 **"Winn is by no change a geneticist. If we need to ask someone to work with us on that one, you know who we have to call."** Barry grinned.

 ** _"Yes, the billionaire super geniuses."_** She smiled back at him while continuing to eat.

 **"Pretty much, or I can read every genetics book in existence in a couple of days and I can do that analysis myself. It's not like I haven't taught myself other crafts just by reading"** The speedster smiled widely and she knew exactly what he was saying.

 **"Yeah, but those two will help us nonetheless. Besides, they don't even have to leave Central City. Winn can get a sample to them, or Barry can run and get one himself. We should call and tell them what's going on. Maybe have them search around Central for Alex"** Kara voiced her concerns and Barry realized that she was right. He picked up his phone again and dialed in Caitlin.

 **"Hey. So … it turns out that we might need your help after all"** he spoke

 **"What do you need?"** Caitlin asked from the other side of the line

 **"Can you have Barry run to the DEO and ask for a cell sample of someone called Maggie Sawyer and bring it back to STAR Labs? They can call me or Kara if they need confirmation. Also there is some alien tissue that we can't quite pinpoint. That would be helpful to have your input on. The main thing we need is see if you can find out from the cells of that woman if she is a clone or anything that might have been grown"** Barry replied.

 **"Is she someone you know?"** Caitlin asked while from her side a familiar whoosh was heard, a sign that Barry was already on his way to National.

 **"She is Alex's girlfriend. The problem is Alex is gone and we can't find her. We initially thought that she was on vacation with said girlfriend, until we found an alien pod with the person inside. We want to know if that is the real one, a clone, something grown, a hybrid or anything else of the sorts. We would have done it ourselves, but we have left National this morning to try to track her across the country. We're in Metropolis now"** Kara explained in detail everything the speedsters might know.

 **"I see, so you`re worried about your sister. Ok, Barry is already on his way to get the samples you asked. I'll have Cisco make the system alert us if it detects Alex anywhere in or near Central City and I'll call you later with the results of our tests"** Caitlin replied immediately as they heard a little cry **"Have to go, Alex needs to eat. I'll talk to you when we finish"**

 **"Thank you, we'll be waiting"** Barry responded and Caitlin closed the line **"That's about it, I don't think we can really do anything more than what we're already doing. Let's hope we find her"** they finished eating and decided to take a little break, that didn't really last very long, Felicity came back to them with news.

 **"So, I hacked the metropolis PD security cameras and I found something. After the two got off the plane, they were seen in the city at least two times. I need Alex's phone number so I can ping her cell"** Felicity replied sternly. Kara went to her phone and texted her the number. **"Got it. Pinging now"**

 **"We tried to call her and ping her cell from National via a program that Winn designed form the DEO, but that didn't work. Wherever she is, the cell is either dead or the battery has been removed. Without that, the ping will not return a reply"** Barry told the hacker what they had done before they actually embarked on this cross nation trip.

 **"Yeah, I got the same response back. I cannot activate her phone. There aren't enough cameras in Metropolis, a lot of areas are still dark when surveillance is concerned, that I haven't already worked with. I haven't scanned everything, so I might be back with more news later"** Felicity told the two who were thankful for her help

 **"Felicity, try to scan outgoing platforms. Planes, Trains, heck even rental places. Somehow I think that they might have skipped Metropolis, just came here for the sights, whichever those would be and left just like they left Star City"** Barry had an idea.

 **"Ok, I'll start with those. What are you two going to do?"** She inquired as to know if they would be coming back to Star City or not.

 **"We'll see depending on what you find. If you don't find anything then we might return to National and wait. We have been all over the country where there were traces of her and at the moment the only thing we can say we know for certain is that we don't know where she is. Which as you can imagine is pretty annoying"** Kara voices her thoughts

 **"I would say that is pretty annoying indeed. Call you if I get anything else"** the voice replied from the other side of the line

 **"Thank you, Felicity for all the help"** Barry stated

 **"No sweat, I consider you two part of our family, which is why I'll always help in any way I can when the need arises. Take care of yourselves"** she replied and closed the line. As they closed the call Clark and Lois came home from work finding the two on the couch.

 **"Anything new?"** He asked sitting down in a chair

 **"Nothing, Felicity managed to find her twice in Metropolis, but we don't know if she left or not. We had Barry and Caitlin check the DNA of the person that we found in the alien pod, unless that is perfect clone they should be able to find something wrong. If they don't, we have to assume that is the real Maggie Sawyer, which means the one that has been trekking around the country with Alex is a fake"** Kara summarized what had happened in the last few hours.

 **"Are you going to stay the night here then until you can find out more?"** Lois asked quite openly, seeing that she had bought groceries to cook

 **"If you two don't mind then yeah, we could stay here. Or we could just run back to National to our own apartment. Now that me and Barry can share speed, we can be there in less than two minute"** Kara replied nonchalantly

 **"You two can share speed? When did that happen?"** Clark looked strangely at the couple in front of him

 **"You know the storms that appeared a while back. While we were helping people, she jumped in front of me to not let me get hit by a bolt of lightning. That bolt changed both of us apparently. Now she can leech off my speed force energy and increase her own speed and my own speed has been augmented because of the transfer of power I got from her alien physiology"** Barry explained as Kal and Lois looked at them with their jaws on the floor while Kara was running around the house with a trail of blue lightning after her.

 **"Then, are you a speedster now too, Kara?"** Lois asked quite bluntly. She tried to understand the situation, but wasn't able to.

 **"No, I don't have access to the speed force like Barry does. The only one that I do have access to is the one that is already in his cells as long as he lets me have it. The lightning strike did increase my speed though, I can now run at Mach 5, which is something me and Barry tested, without his help, flying seems to have been upgraded to around Mach 5 as well, but since I didn't want to overdo it and arrive here severely depleted I didn't accelerate to the max speed I could have"** The blonde alien explained.

 **"When we share speed, I slow down, but not by much, the last time we did that we were both cruising along at Mach 50 when we came back from the Maldives after our date"** Barry replied with a grin making Clark put on a smirk.

 **"Well, I'm going to cook so whoever wants to help is welcomed to do so"** Lois smiled and started unpacking what she had bought. All three superheroes stood up and went to help the woman get everything done faster because they were apparently hungry.


	33. Infiltration

The two indeed took the couch after they finished eating and drifted off to sleep. The next morning, Clark and Lois were greeted by the same view as he had seen before. Kara was asleep with her head on Barry's chest and the rest of her body was floating on the outside of the small couch which was kind of small for two persons.

 **"This brings back memories"** Kal whispered.

 **"What do you mean, Clark, do they do that often?"** Lois inquired with the same low voice. Superman pulled out his phone and showed her the picture he had snapped the other time the two heroes were there. She chuckled. **"I see. Should we wake them? We do need to go to the Planet"**

 **"I'll make coffee. Those two will instantly wake up when they smell it. Just watch"** Clark went to the kitchen and put coffee on, in a few minutes the aroma filling the entire house. The speedster and the blonde woke up, Barry noticed a few seconds early that she was floating so he pulled her back so she would plop on the bed.

 **"You`re right, coffee is like the morning wake up for those two. That's amazing"** Lois started to laugh prompting two sleepy looks from the couple that was now getting up.

 **"Good morning, do we smell coffee?"** Barry asked.

 **"Yep. Best way to start the day. Get your fill, Lois and I have to get ready for work. Did you receive any sort of message last night from anyone?"** Kal inquired as he was speeding around.

 **"No. We're going to go to the fortress after we get some coffee and eat, maybe the computer there has some information about what we need. Is the key still under the welcome mat?"** Kara inquired and her cousin nodded.

 **"Well you know it doesn't really matter, Kara. We can simply phase through the door"** Barry gave her a winning smile and Clark smirked. He flashed out and came back 2 minutes later with a dozen of pot stickers and some donuts. Getting comfortable on a chair with a box and some coffee **"Pot stickers for the lady. Fresh from the other side of the world"** He grinned and he saw his fiancée attacking them like she hadn't eaten in a week.

 **"The other side of the world?"** Lois asked surprised.

 **"Oh, yeah, I just went to China and back. I know she loves them so I only get the best for my girl"** Barry grinned making Kara blush hard.

 **"Barry, you know I never asked. Just how fast are you?"** Lois decided to clear something that was on her mind.

 **"I actually don't know. Before the lightning hit I could circle the world in 3 minutes. Which would bring me somewhere around … Mach 700 I guess. After the strike I never actually tried to run faster than that, Barry and Caitlin do have a speed lab, so I might just go push it there. I would really not want to jump off the planet since escape velocity is just Mach 33"** He said truthfully and Lois's face fell. She realized that he could reach almost anywhere in the world in a couple of minutes, which explained why going to China to get Kara food took him so little.

 **"That is quite an impressive velocity. I thought you were fast, but that's just over the top"** she quipped looking at Kal.

 **"We need to go, honey"** he pointed at the clock and sped them into their clothes. The couple waved goodbye and left Barry and Kara enjoying their breakfast. Shortly after the two jumped into their suits and started the trek up to the North Pole to reach the fortress. When they got there they realized that they didn't have the sample they needed for the computer to analyze, so Barry had to speed all the way down to National City, get a few scrapes off the claw and come back. On his way back, he saw that he had one missed call from Felicity, he sent her a message that they would be out of range and they will be contacting her as soon as possible.

Barry had been here before, but this version of Kara didn't. She regarded it as her cousin's sanctuary not hers, although she was pleasantly surprised when her fiancée turned into a pretty awesome tour guide. It was obvious that he had been here before and the place didn't really change much. She did think to herself a long while back the she will probably not need to come here in her lifetime, because she didn't want to be a hero, but now she actually enjoyed being given the tour by another person who … from her point of view had never been there. It was quite funny.

The computer didn't know Barry and refused them access. But Kara was recognized and the started an analysis on the sample that he had brought in. There wasn't much that they could see at first until Kara's eyes moved over to the race of which the bio material belonged to. The dominators. The name sparked a long forgotten memory in Kara's mind.

 **"These guys came to Krypton and Daxam a long time ago, they are a race of scientists, which like to study other lifeforms, they usually do not attack alone, they have partners. I don't remember their names. If they are here then we have a big problem. It means they have covertly infiltrated the population so they can study us. But who would help them, it's a known fact that CADMUS hates aliens and metahumans. Unless the government signed some sort of pact with them in which case we're in a lot of trouble"** Kara spoke her mind to her fiancée

 **"There is the possibility that the government isn't collaborating with them. They either have no idea or some key personnel have already been replaced to offer them higher access for the plans they have for this planet. Either way, we are in big trouble, if what you remember is true, Kara. We need to get back and talk to J`onn. After we find my sister. If we find her"** Kara said with a looming shadow on her face

 **"What do you mean, if? Of course we'll find her"** Barry tried to lighten the situation with a little positive thinking.

 **"Barry, the dominators choose subjects to study. From what I have heard on Krypton, some people completely vanished before the initial conflict and they have never been recovered. That is what I'm afraid that will happen with Alex and whoever else has been targeted by these guys"** She said with a cracked voice.

 **"We will find her, Kara"** Barry suddenly said with a stern voice. His words seemed to instill in her more hope than she ever thought she had **"Don't worry. She is still on earth by the looks of it, which means that we can still find her"**

 **"Thank you for that, I think sometimes I get too caught up on my own thoughts to have a little hope. Come on, let's go to Felicity and see if she has something. Then we need to eat, in case we need to go back to Metropolis"** She smiled and took his hand. They both phased through the door and ran through the arctic wasteland until they started to see green and after a little while, the buildings of Star City started to pop up. The two went straight to Felicity's office back at STAR West, where the blonde was busy doing one of her many jobs.

 **"Hey, sorry to drop by unannounced, did you manage to get anything else?"** Kara asked with a bit of home in her voice.

 **"The two were sighted around a car rental company, but their system is offline, I can't get into it to see if they actually went there to rent something or not. Their tracking ID is in their offline system which means you might need to go there and get it for me. Once you do that I can task one of the eyes in the sky to see if they can pinpoint the GPS location of the car"** Felicity replied, telling them for now that there were in a bit of a bind.

 **"We can go do that. Barry is fast enough to get you a connection to that offline network and we can just go ask the owner about what we need. In the end we still are cops"** Kara replied.

 **"Maybe we should go get the DHS badges that we had last time we went to Metropolis, we don't really have jurisdiction there as detectives"** Barry voiced

 **"That is a good idea. We'll take those and go to Metropolis. You need us to plant something on their network so you can get in?"** Kara asked Felicity quite bluntly.

 **"Yes, that would be good. Here, take this"** she gave them a two way wireless receiver **"Put it in a USB port of any computer that is on that network and I'll do my thing"** The two nodded and flashed out the window, Felicity had updated Kara's security protocol in the STAR Mainframe so that she would have access to the executive level of STAR West without too much trouble. The couple flashed back to the DEO, where they met with J`onn.

 **"We found out from the fortress what we're dealing with. Did you ever hear of the dominators?"** Kara asked the Martian

 **"I have, but only from other species, I don't think they have reached this far before and I'm pretty sure on Mars we have never had the pleasure of their visits"** J`onn replied. Kara told him everything she knew about them and all her concerns about the fact that Alex might disappear if she was indeed abducted **"That is bad. So, does the fact that they're here means that we should expect a full on invasion?"**

 **"I don't know yet. On Krypton they conducted experiments in secret for years, before they actually tried to invade. I don't know how long they have been here already. But yes, the end goal of such study is almost always invasion. Which means, sooner or later, we might have to deal with them and with whatever partners they have"** Kara said with a stern tone in her voice.

 **"You think they might bring partners as well?"** J`onn was surprised by what he was hearing.

 **"More than likely, I do remember they were scientists, they liked to manipulate but they rarely did their own dirty work. We should expect at least two races if not more trying to come after us."** The blonde alien replied changing his face from almost relaxed to worry.

 **"We're going to take the DHS badges, we found something in Metropolis on Alex and Maggie, but we need to convince the person to give us the information we need. Winn, coordinate with Felicity and see if you can get something off the footage that she detected. Even a partial plate would help"** Barry explained their makeshift plan to the two who nodded.

Barry and Kara grabbed the DHS badges and returned to Metropolis to get their cop clothes from Clark's apartment and with those in tow, they went straight to the car rental place where Alex was seen last. As the entered a person greeted them. They greeted back politely and asked to be taken to the manager. The salesman asked why, but when they showed him their badges he stopped asking questions and led them to an office where someone was waiting.

 **"Good day, we're agents Allen and Danvers from the DHS. We would like to ask you some questions"** Barry sat down as the person looked at them inquisitively. Kara took out something that looked like a file and put a picture of her sister on the man's desk.

 **"Did you by any chance see this person in the last 4 days?"** She asked politely. The man took a look at the photo and thought for a little bit.

 **"No I don't remember this person ever being here. But we do have a lot of costumers daily so, I could be wrong"** The man tried to excuse his lack of memory. Barry used the time that Kara was talking to move as fast as he could and put the wireless transceiver in one of the USB ports at the back of the man's computer so that it wouldn't be detected. Kara pulled out another picture from the file, this one was taken from the NCPD photo database.

 **"How about this one?"** Kara smiled and sat down near her fiancée.

 **"Oh, I remember her. She came back here about … 2 days ago and wanted to rent a van. The only type of vans that we have are the sort of large family vans you`d see a family drive, but she wanted a white van with no windows. Which I thought was kind of creepy and a bit shady. I turned her away and sent her to a rival rental company that handles that kind of stuff. I can give you the address and the number for that if you need it"** The manager proved extremely eager to help and the information he delivered had given him another lead. Barry took back the USB transceiver and the two exited the building thanking the person for his cooperation. They instantly called Felicity.

 **"Good work on that wireless connection. I managed to get off the footage of the last 3 days"** She told the two

 **"Check two days ago. The guy said that he saw Maggie coming in and wanting to rent a van with no windows. He thought that was a little shady and sent her someone else. Why would anyone want a van with no windows unless they want to transport a prisoner?"** Barry voiced his thoughts

 **"Good point. There we go. Yes, she was indeed there two days ago. The facial recognition confirms it. Everything seems to have transpired exactly how you told me. Do you have the name and the number of the other rental company? Maybe their network isn't so antiquated and I can hack in"** The blonde spoke excited. She as happy that they finally managed to get a lead on the missing person.

 **"I'll sent it to you in a text in a minute. We need to go eat so take your time"** Kara replied as the two went to look for a restaurant, a coffee shop or a pizzeria. Felicity agreed and closed the line, Barry sending the data they got over to her and waiting for an answer.

 **"I thought about what you said. If she did indeed need a white van without any windows, that looks like a kidnappers car that she wanted to rent. But the footage showed my sister alive and well, she was even laughing before Maggie entered the rental place. I really don't understand anything anymore"** Kara said with a tone of disdain in her mental voice.

 **"You aren't the only one. We initially through it was a simple road trip, then it turned into a kidnapping, after that it was an alien abduction, now we're back to kidnapping and the evidence we have doesn't even corroborate what we think. A white van with no windows could as easily be used for some naughty stuff on the side of the road. We keep thinking the worst"** Barry replied making Kara blush at the idea of what he said, but realizing he was completely correct.

 **"If this turns out to be just a big goose chase, I'm going to take Alex and tar and feather her. I just hope I get to do that and everything is all right instead of searching for her and finding her wounded and dying"** Her worry came out through her words and Barry took her hand and kissed it softly. As they were waiting, Barry's phone rang.

 **"Hey, bro. I got the results of what you wanted us to check"** The other Barry replied with a chuckle.

 **"Go ahead, Kara is listening too"** the speedster put his phone on speaker but turned down the volume so that they wouldn't be heard.

 **"The sample I got from detective Sawyer seems to be free of any abnormalities whatsoever. Nothing to indicate that she is a clone. So, there could be two possibilities. Either she's a clone, but a damn good one at that, not something our technology can cook up, or she is the original one, in which case the problem you two thought about could be very real"** young Barry replied on the phone.

 **"Anything on the samples from that claw?"** Kara inquired softly

 **"Nothing. You were correct, it is indeed alien, but we don't have any sort of alien classification system that we could use that on. Maybe talk to Winn and get him to talk to Cisco into getting that incorporated in our system do we can help better next time"** the answer came

 **"We found out what that race was. They are called the dominators. Quite a nasty bunch those ones are. They usually send advanced scouts to the planet that they either want to conquer or destroy. We might have a war on our hands pretty soon"** Kara said with a really annoyed tone.

 **"If that's the case then we should all gather and discuss whatever plan of attack we should have in case that happens. I'll continue to check for information on those dominators. Let you know if I find anything"** Young Barry stated

 **"Thank you. We'll share whatever info we come across in our search for my sister as well"** The blonde alien assured the young speedster.

 **"All right. Be safe and good luck. Call us if you need any sort of help with anything"** he offered and closed the line leaving the two to finish their meal.

 **"I love those two. They help no matter what the problem is. It's such a great feeling to have family like them"** Kara smiled at her fiancée

 **"Nothing we wouldn't do for them. You know by now I regard them as family, just like you"** Barry replied to her while smirking. Felicity called back after a little bit

 **"You two are in luck. The car rental company that you gave me the data to has an online system and I was able to hack into it. Maggie Sawyer did indeed rent a white van with no windows. I have the license plate and I tried to activate the GPS tracker, the signal seems to be blocked by something. I did manage to get a location from the path, its somewhere out in the Nevada desert, where they were going, but that is all I got. After they left the signal started getting weird, like it was mirrored, multiple paths appeared on the tracking scope like the van had split into three. I can send you all three locations if you want and you can scout there"** the blonde told them. She was concerned, the voice was saying everything.

 **"Sent them. We'll go check it out. Where are they?"** Barry asked.

 **"One is in the Nevada desert, one is somewhere in Milwaukee and the third is about 100 miles south of National City. You choose where to go first. I'm sending the data through the satellites to your displays. I've already hacked them and tied you into the STAR satellite network so you can follow their path"** She stated

 **"Thank you, Felicity. Amazing work"** Barry praised the blonde who had been doing this for over two days now. They both appreciated the help she gave them to find the missing sister and to settle this matter.

 **"You`re welcome. Let me know if you found her so we can all rest a little bit easier"** She chuckled at the phone with her voice full of hope and closed the line.

 **"All right then. Which one do we take first?"** Barry asked her.

 **"Let's go leave our clothes back in National and they start with the farthest and work our way down. The last one is the closest and we will need to go and sleep eventually"** Kara proposed and he nodded. The two sped back to National City and left their badges, first going to the Milwaukee marker. What they found there was a deserted town with nobody in sight. Barry ran around the whole town in a couple of minutes and came back

 **"Nothing. There are no people here and everything seems like they left in a hurry. Try to scan underground maybe we can find some sort of hideout. The cellars I managed to open were mostly empty"** She told Kara who flew up and started to look around. She only saw the cellars that Barry had already opened, nothing that was shielded by lead and nothing that was opaque.

 **"This is a bust, Nevada next?"** She inquired and he nodded. Barry started to run with her right above him. They would both run normally, her enjoying being alongside him, but sometimes at the immense rate of speed the fact that she couldn't process her surroundings had led to her crashing through a wall or two. She did have the ability of seeing the world slow down, since the lightning hit them, but when Barry was putting out tremendous bursts of speed, her senses were overwhelmed and the world became a blur itself. After a few tests they saw that she could only keep up with the world till around Mach 10. Anything beyond that became a blur to her. She was careful, but now they needed to be there as soon as they could so she decided to fly, she would get the speed boost either way. They were at the Nevada site in less than a few minutes, since both were cruising at a tremendous maximum speed. This time, all they saw above ground was a small shack surrounded by cameras and fences. Nothing more, nothing less.

 **"Why does this look like one of those subterranean military bases from the movies?"** Barry chuckled and she got the hint starting to scan the underground.

 **"Because it is, apparently. Except this one is abandoned as well. I can't see anyone inside in the first three levels. Not even crates, just tunnels all around and nothing else."** She told him getting up to get a better view.

 ** _"Do the tunnels actually lead somewhere? Or they are between areas of the base?"_** He asked while phasing through the door and going down the elevator shaft to check the inside

 **"Not that I see. Some of them have been blocked off, I don't know for what reason, some are caved in and some are just there, but don't seem to serve any sort of purpose whatsoever."** The explanation came. Barry continued to move as fast as he could through the base not really finding anything. They would have expected at least military personnel of some description, but it would seem that the base was indeed completely empty. He got back up and waited for her to come down from the sky

 **"There's nothing inside. Not even a clue of what this base had been used back in the day. Must have been some sort of military bunker of some unknown description and use"** Barry concluded while he was getting some sand off from his face and some dirt off the suit.

 **"All right then, door number three?"** She looked at him and he smiled. This time she chose to run with him since the majority of the way to National City was just desert and she had nothing to bump into and destroy. Sometimes she actually wished that she could phase through objects like he did, but she could fly if she wanted, he could not, so to each his own trick of getting around fast.

Arriving at the third spot they could already see that this one was populated. It was some sort of army base itself with a few buildings a hangar and a large airstrip where a transport plane was being loaded up with something that the couple had seen before. On each of the transports that were going to and from the plane, there were rows of the same pods that they had seen back in the basement below the building in National City. Most of them were empty, but some were not. Kara started to scan the area with her vision and saw a knocked out Alex that was being put in a pod. The neural connections weren't engaged which meant that she could be taken out safely.

 ** _"Barry, get Alex. She should be fine I think she's just knocked out"_** Kara pointed to the speedster which pod her sister was in and in less than a second in a trail of blue lightning she was near her. The speedster making sure that she was all right. The storm of sand that Barry pulled up had sadly attracted attention and all the people that were on the base were now coming to attack them. She saw the fact that most of their weapons were already glowing green.

 **"Be careful, I don't know who gave them that, but their weapons are Kryptonite laden. The suit should protect you but be careful that you don't take too many hits. I don't know how many bullets that fabric can stop"** Barry told her as they both sped toward the attackers. Barry managed to get most of the weapons away from the soldiers without hurting them, disassembling and phasing the bullets out. Kara was taking the pods one at the turn and started to destroy them. Flash was simply handling the soldiers. He did not want to kill them because as they seemed they were just following orders. Kara had started to X ray them and confirmed that they were all human, even the ones that were loading the jet with the pods.

 **""** Does the fact that they are all human means there is a rogue cell in the military that is helping these aliens?" Kara inquired, voicing a thought

 **"It might be even worse than that. The government might be helping them, this could be some sort of situation where they have struck a deal for their survival. Egotistical bastards, they are selling out the human race and they don't give a damn"** as he was saying these words she could feel his anger.

 ** _"Don't worry. I'm going to melt these so they can never be used again on anyone"_** Kara smiled and started to put out her heat vision at maximum temperature and started to hit the pods which became mush under the extreme heat. Barry helped her after all the soldiers were out by phasing out some of them as well. After they finished with the cleanup and the soldiers started to wake up they left and took Alex with them straight to the DEO.

 **"Good, I see you've found her. Is she all right?"** J`onn looked at the person in the medical bed.

 **"I don't know yet. Let me run some tests"** Barry started to take blood and skin samples, checked her pupil responses and autonomic responses. They were all fine, but the blood showed a large dose of sleeping agent **"She's been drugged. Give me a moment. I'll phase the compound out of her system"** the speedster put his hands on her and started to vibrate. Soon enough a blue mist started seeping out of her sister and soon stopped. Barry coming to a halt panting heavily. **"There we go. She should wake up momentarily. Kara, mind getting me some food? That took way too much out of me"** He smiled toward his fiancée and she was already gone coming back a few minutes later with 10 pizzas which the speedster ate almost instantly.

 **"You said she should wake up pretty fast. I'm going to stay here to keep an eye on her"** Kara said. She didn't manage to find a chair so she just started to float like she was sitting on something.

 **"Sit here"** Barry motioned to his lap **"I'm going to wait with you until she wakes up. J`onn, did we find anything else on these dominator characters?"**

 **"Not much I'm afraid. There is no data from what I can gather. If there is a government agency that has them, they might be out of our reach"** The Martian answered as Kara sat down in his lap watching her sister

 **"Barry and Caitlin might have another source. They mentioned it once about having someone that was a higher up at a government agency. I'm going to talk to them after Alex wakes up"** Kara remembered the two saying something about Lyla at one point. After about 30 or so minutes, Alex woke up.

 **"Where am I? I thought I was in Metropolis, what am I doing in the DEO? Where's Maggie?"** She started to ask all the questions she could think of.

 **"Whoa, sis. You were in Metropolis, but you were drugged. We had to go over half the country to find you. What the hell were you thinking? You just skipped work, said to no one where you`re going to go on a cross country tour?"** Kara said to her, Barry could hear from her voice that she was extremely angry with her sister, but through their bond he felt relief and calm. She was only faking to be angry, in reality she was very happy that her sister was alive.

 **"Maggie proposed that we just take off, I thought why not, it's not like I was really spontaneous in my relationships. What happened to me?"** Alex got up and stood at the side of the bed she was put in.

 **"Yesterday morning we found a pod in the basement of that structure where that assassin disappeared. It was most definitely alien in nature and Maggie was in it. At first we thought you were old enough to take care of yourself and maybe you just took some impromptu leave time to go with her somewhere, but after that we immediately thought that you might have been abducted. The person that was with you was not Maggie. You were about to be put in a pod and shipped somewhere when we found you"** Kara started to explain leaving her sister with her jaw on the floor.

 **"We had Barry and Caitlin check her DNA, she is the real Maggie Sawyer. The problem is it looks like she has been in that pod for at least a couple of months. The system is keeping her alive and feeding her through IV's that are administered regularly"** Barry continued the explanation.

 **"What do you mean a couple of months, you mean the person I was dating could not even have been Maggie herself?"** Alex said with a surprised look.

 **"That can indeed be a possibility. The problem is we haven't found any sort of way to get her out of that pod. The neural connections make breaking the connection impossible if we don't want to kill her"** Kara added.

 **"It seems you were selected as a test subject, along with others that we managed to pull out from that place. Worse still, the government seems to be behind this. The people at the site where we found you were all human and US military. I'm sorry, Alex. But it seems to me like after you have been selected, Maggie was sent in to act as a decoy and gain your trust so that you can be collected later."** Barry's voice was cold and held a bit of pity for the DEO agent when he realized that her relationship was a lie.

 **"I'm glad you were there to get me out. Next time I go on an impromptu trip, I'm taking my tracker with me and that's that. Do we know what kind of aliens these guys are? We only know White and Green Martians that can shapeshift. So who was with me all that time?"** She asked holding in the annoyance of what Barry has presented as the truth.

 **"We don't know. The main race, from which we have found evidence that was in the scouting, was the Dominators. We found out later from the Fortress that they usually are just scientists and they almost always have partners, which confirmed some of the stories I have heard on Krypton from back when they decided to attack my home planet. We couldn't find who the partners are and since we don't have any sort of evidence and we couldn't catch the duplicate Maggie we don't know what sort of alien she is really"** Barry resumed his explanations to put the DEO Agent to speed.

 **"That is a race I have heard nothing about. I don't even know who they are supposed to look. We are at a very large disadvantage here. We don't know our enemy and their allies, which could prove fatal if there is a conflict in the long run. We need to find out as much as we can about these guys"** Alex realized the situation wasn't at all as rosy as it presented itself. Before she had a chance to continue, Kara's phone rang.

 **"Kara, take J`onn and Barry and come to Central City. We talked to one of our other sources in another firm that works in the government. She sounded pretty worried when we mentioned the Dominators and told us that they have more data to share, but it can't be done over the phone because it's classified. You should come over to us so you can have as much information as we are going to get. Whatever those aliens are planning might not have immediate effects, but having the same information might prove invaluable"** Young Barry's voice sounded pretty stern and it was more like he was telling them to come over not asking.

 **"How fast do you need us to be there?"** Older Barry asked.

 **"Lyla and Diggle are coming over in the STAR Jet tonight. You can come over now, just take some clothes so you have in what to sleep. We have more than enough room in the penthouse for you"** Caitlin replied from the other side of the line.

 **"All right. Were on our way."** The Martian replied and the line was closed. The three suited up also going by their home to get some clothes in which to sleep in. The suits they were wearing and the guns would be their regular clothes if they needed any. It's not like they were going to a party. It was a briefing, something that they needed since the information they had was scarce at best. Kara told Alex to see if she can find a way to get Maggie out of the pod and told her that she would keep her in touch via Winn when they know what they were dealing, then she, J`onn and Barry flew out of the DEO straight to Central City.


	34. Unexpected

Barry and Kara returned from Central city with a sense of dread. The two Allens had told them what had happened and if anything the whole planet was in danger. The two superheroes continued with their lives as usual, but continued to receive updates from their friends at STAR. The numbers were worrying, the scanners the two speedsters put together with the help of Cisco showed them that it was far worse than what they had initially thought. On top of everything the appearance of several facilities across the country owned by someone who at first glance seemed to be Barry Allen, confused most of the people in the NCPD. That confusion was set to rest after the couple explained that it was indeed his twin brother that was the owner of the STAR Labs brand all over the country. As the two were hard at work going over yet another strange murder that had happened in National City, they received a call from a friend.

 **"Hey, you two. I was wondering, since you're such good friends with the Allens, can you talk to them to give me an interview sometime when they might come to National City?"** Cat said excited, she knew what happened in advance so it came to her as no surprise that she would have to do that. In this world most of the people knew the STAR Labs owners as being recluses and never talking to the press except through their own press director.

 **"I doubt it, Cat. Those two don't really like the press. Even if they did, they would be more likely to just set up a press conference themselves and then release whatever information they want"** Kara replied truthfully. The two Allens were richer than anyone in National City, even Kat or Lena, not to mention Maxwell Lord, were far under the value that those two had. The only person that they could think about that was near the level of wealth those two had now was Bruce Wayne, the billionaire who owned Wayne tech from Gotham.

 **"Well you can always try, if they don't want to then that how it is, besides, I don't think they will have a problem giving an interview to someone they had met before. Thanks to you two for that"** Cat quipped from the other side of the line.

 **"Cat, you can call them just as well as we can. See if they want that kind of publicity, if not… then that's how it will probably be for the foreseeable future"** Barry chuckled.

 **"Ok. Thanks you two. I'll see what I can do on my own"** She replied and closed the line. The couple restarted to work on the evidence that was presented to them earlier.

 **"Barry and Caitlin were never people that wanted this much exposure, what do you think? Are they gonna give Cat that interview?"** Barry asked his fiancée.

 **"I doubt it. They have more pressing issues almost all the time than coming here and talking to Cat. She did get an invitation to the vacation house, so maybe she could catch them there"** Kara voiced back.

 **"We shall see. I know Cat doesn't give up that easily, but she doesn't pressure either. Who knows, maybe she'll get lucky"** Barry chuckled.

After they finished their work the two decided to take a long stroll through the park. They knew Chief Singer would call if there was something that they needed to do, so they decided to enjoy their apparent free time, which as they both knew could end at any time in case of an emergency.

As the two walked around in the park holding hands and talking to one another in their minds, Barry realized that there was a person that kept popping up ever since they had left the station.

 ** _"Kara, don't look now, but I think we're being followed again."_** He voiced toward her and she started following reflections and trying to pick up the trail. After a bit more walking she was the shadow that Barry had seen before.

 **"Yea. I saw him, but I can't scan him without looking directly at him. We might need to duck out of sight and see if he goes into cover"** She replied

 ** _"Oh, you need to look behind? That's pretty easy"_** Barry quipped and grabbed her by the hand for her to get face to face with him and kissed her on the lips. He stopped at an angle and she had enough field of view to scan the intruder that was nonchalantly moving toward them.

 ** _"It's the same guy as always. Kryptonite dagger and normal dagger, with lead clothes."_** She replied as they separated from the kiss and with a smile continued to stroll down the street on the way to the donut shop. They walked inside and ordered their usual 5 boxes full of donuts and Kara was keeping an eye on the person through the wall. He ducked out of sight and was patiently waiting in an alley right beside the shop, peeking in from time to time to check if the couple had come out yet. They were on the third box of donuts when Kara's face focused and she turned her head toward something. Barry already knew what that meant

 **"What did you hear?"** He asked

 ** _"Explosion downtown. I think we'd better make an appearance. We can deal with that guy later"_** She responded and the two got out through the back door and flashed to the scene. There was a blaze in an apartment building, Chief Singer was on the scene. The two superheroes put the fire out almost instantly with a combination of Freeze breath and small wind funnels, while the crowd cheered them on. The two disappeared, the people presuming they had another emergency to go to. In reality they returned to the donut shop where the tail they had was still waiting patiently. Barry's phone rang

 **"Allen, get Danvers and come to 25 south 63rd. There has been an explosion. Flash and Superwoman managed to quell the flames, but I need you to find out if there is something left in the wake of the fire"** His voice was strange, it was like he was surprised, shocked and worried at the same time.

 **"On our way, Chief. Be there as soon as we can"** Barry replied closing the line. The two got out of the donut shop and kept an eye on the shadow that was following them. They went to the NCPD, grabbed a kit and headed out toward the address that they were given

 **"Barry, something seems very familiar about that address, but I can't seem to be able to put my finger on it"** Kara told her fiancée

 **"You`re right. Something seems very familiar to me too, but I don't know why. We should ask the Chief when we get there. Keep it slow, we want this guy to continue to be able to trail us, for now"** He replied as the two started walking at a rhythmed pace but not fast enough for the spook to not be able to keep up with them. It took them almost an hour to get to the crime scene, compared to the usual 5 minutes, but they couldn't use their speed.

 **"Chief, what happened here?"** Barry asked Singer as soon as they were there.

 **"There was a bomb in that apartment over there. It exploded as soon as the persons tried to open the door. Thankfully, the blast wave only knocked them unconscious and didn't hurt them as badly as it could have"** He replied with a log of anger in his eyes.

 **"Do we know whose apartment is that sir?"** Kara inquired getting ready to go and investigate

 **"Yes, Danvers. It's mine"** The answer came and the two felt like someone had hit them with a mallet over the heads. They realized why Singer was so worried and what had happened. His own family almost got blown to smithereens.

 **"I'm sorry, sir, I didn't mean to pry"** the blonde alien tried to backtrack but Singer stopped her.

 **"It's your job to ask questions. Don't stop on my account"** he said quite sternly. While Barry was discussing with the Chief what might have happened, Kara went up and started to look around with her vision. Everything was a mess, there was little hope that she would find something in the charred remains of what once was Singer's apartment, but she gave it a shot anyway. Her vision helped immensely in detecting minute traces in the rubble. She was still in the room adjacent to where the blast was, but as soon as she changed room, her pendant starting to flash red and green and she started feeling sick. She got out of the room and Barry was already at the door.

 **"I saw the warning. Kryptonite bomb?"** He asked her quite bluntly

 **"I'm not sure. I cannot stand in that room for more than a few seconds, which tells me that there was a lot of it in the device, or something happened with it that made it stick with the walls. I don't think Chief Singer would have kryptonite in his house"** She replied, mentioning a possibility that would have seem rather strange if it was true.

 **"Are you ok in this room?"** Barry looked at her quite worried.

 **"Yes, you should take the other one and see if you can find anything. I can help you with scans, but only from outside"** The answer came and he nodded. The two split and Barry went into the room where Kara started to feel sick looking for clues. Now and again he'd ask for her to scan a piece of debris or something between them. But he did manage to find quite a few pieces that would be part of a bomb. Including a small cartridge that looked like it was carrying something liquid. When he put it against his ring, the readings were off the scale, it was like the sensor was put next to a large chunk of Kryptonite.

 **"I got it. There was indeed Kryptonite here, but not the normal kind. Someone made it liquid and apparently used it to boost the explosive power of this bomb. I swear these guys fond more and more uses for that crap rock every day. What is this? Naquadah?"** Barry said with a real annoyed voice.

 **"Explains why I couldn't get into the room, the explosion must have embedded particles of it in the walls. It wasn't enough to seriously hurt me but I felt sick instantly"** Kara explained. **"Did you find anything beside that?"**

 **"Part of a trigger mechanism, a casing from a blasting cap and some oxidizer. The regular trademark of a bomb, nothing special except the liquid Kryptonite"** He answered. The couple went down to report to Singer what they had found and got the go ahead to go and process the evidence. Barry and Kara were really annoyed that someone tried to kill off his family. While he was their boss, they did consider him a friend and they really wanted to find out who it was behind this.

Strangely enough as they walked back to the precinct the spook that was on their tail seemed to have disappeared. They did look around and waited for him to show up again, but to no avail. As they were working in the Lab they got a call from Cat.

 **"I have some disturbing news for you. I heard that Chief Singer's house was bombed this afternoon, is that true?"** She asked with a bit of ire in her voice.

 **"Yes. We just came from there. I don't know who did it but the bomb had Liquid Kryptonite in it. It was specifically produced to alter the blast, it was low yield but the radiation poisoned the room that the explosion took place."** The answer came from Barry as short as he could make it.

 **"We just got an ultimatum to play. Someone dropped a tape off at CatCo and has sent letters and threats to other publications as well. The persons that are to blame for this said that if the cooperation between the police and CatCo doesn't end, then they will continue to blow up cops in their own homes. This time, there were no victims, the following bombs they say will be different. I noticed the people that are on those lists, I think it has to do with something that we printed, information which came from the police department"** The media mogul explained

 **"That would make sense, if we keep the spotlight on whoever is doing this, then the public will let us know about every move they make. That in itself is very damaging so now they are trying to scare us from ending this cooperation by going after the precinct for giving the data away"** Kara reasoned

 **"Cat, put your home on maximum security. While these guys do go after cops it would be logical to come after the person that is publishing the list as well. Take care of yourself and we shall see what we can do about these terrorists"** Barry added

 **"All right, I'll try. You two take care of yourselves as well, you are still police, which means whoever bombed Singer's apartment might come after you next"** Cat made a very fine point and the two took notice at the fact that she was more worried about them then she was about her.

 **"Yes, we will. We still need to find out who built this bomb and why. After that we will see"** Kara responded and she closed the call.

They were not surprised to find that the blasting cap was something that came from a military type device. This would almost immediately mean that the rogue military operation led by Lane was involved. There were no other factions that would stoop so low as to terrorize cops to get to Supergirl. The fact that there was Kryptonite on the scene proved that pretty well. Barry went as far away as he could from Kara and started to check the capsule he found. It had indeed traces of the mineral that hurt her. The problem was that this appeared to be a normal chemical explosive bomb, the rock had no effect on it whatsoever by what he could ascertain.

 **"This was definitely meant as a warning for Superwoman and Superman. The rock is useless as an explosive compound. It's only there to draw your attention"** Barry spoke and looked at his fiancée.

 ** _"Who do we know that uses that sort of thing?"_** Kara put a rhetorical question that both knew the answer to. It could only be CADMUS at this point. Ever since they managed to put most of the people that tried to kill superman the day that Lois was captured behind bars, they went underground and were never heard from again, until the spook started following them again. The connection between General Lane's rogue military operation and Lillian Luthor had been well established.

 **"Cat should play that ultimatum tonight and we should see what happens. But somehow I feel it in my gut that even that tape is a diversion. These guys are terrorists, I doubt they would make their intentions public"** Barry replied not taking his eyes off the computer.

 **"So what you`re saying is that there will be more bombs either way. No matter if someone listens to that ultimatum or not"** Kara summarized his thoughts

 **"Yeah. That's exactly what I'm saying. We should alert Chief Singer to be on the lookout for potential threats. The other detectives too. This is more than likely an attack on the precinct for offering information to the press. Information what would have never gotten out if it wasn't for the system we arranged with Cat"** the speedster explained further

 **"We try to do something that's best for the city and there are always numbskulls that decide that they need to tear it down. This is becoming more and more annoying as time passes. I swear"** Kara was pretty angry with the new development, but calmed down when Barry turned his head and smiled at her

 **"And we'll always be here to stop them. Nothing we haven't done before, or we won't do from now forward. Just you and me, like always. Of course, if we get swamped, there is family we can always call in if needed"** The speedster gave her a goofy smile like he knew that would calm her down. It was time for them to head home. They passed by the Chief and told him to be careful and to spread the message around that everyone should take care that they don't get blown up. In return, the chief told them the same. He had the same idea as the two and considering they were the main initiators of the press police coordination, they would most likely be targeted as well. The couple agreed and left. They stopped by Kara's favorite donut shop and headed home.

As they reached the apartment the two disregarded all the warnings, because they could simply not take their hands off each other. They started kissing all the way from the elevator to the front door and after Kara managed to put the key in the keyhole, after quite a few tries since she was busy kissing Barry, she heard a click. She had heard the door a thousand times and that click should have not been there. Somewhere in the room a sound was heard and an explosion began. The sound was clearly there, Barry however reacted instantly taking Kara away from the blast site and back toward the elevator as the front door hit the wall in front of it with enough force to shatter the wood it was made from into smithereens.

 ** _"You all right?"_** Barry asked seeing the red and green lines on her necklace.

 ** _"Yes. Feeling a bit out of it actually. Another bomb with Kryptonite?"_** she asked not being able to see her necklace. He raised his hand and she saw the ring color and nodded.

 ** _"I'm going to put out the fire, stay here, I don't want you to get hurt by that crap"_** He kissed her gently and flashed into the apartment where he started to take out the air by creating a huge funnel to the outside. In a few minutes the place was fire free, but the damage was obvious. Most of the apartment was burned to a crisp, the initial blast was laden with some sort of fire accelerant, it would have been impossible otherwise for the damage that could be seen to be done in this short time. The two called Chief Singer to let him know about the attempt. It was about time for Cat to play the tape with the ultimatum so the two left for CatCo to have a little chat with the media mogul.

On their way on the elevator they suddenly realized they had no home anymore. The apartment was trashed and it was pretty obvious that they couldn't stay there. They had to find an alternative. Which would have been a problem, if they didn't know someone with a spare house in Central City.

 **"Hey, Cat. I don't think that ultimatum tape is going to make much difference. Our house just got bombed"** Barry said with disdain in his voice.

 **"What do you mean? Did they actually put another bomb even before I put this tape up for the audience? Then what's the point of the ultimatums?"** She looked at the couple quite surprised.

 **"Don't ask us. But we found out that the bomb that was in Chief Singer's apartment and the one from hours contained liquid Kryptonite. It was meant to send a message. What kind of message however, we don't really know, besides the obvious "Superwoman stay away"** one that the green rock is clear on" Kara replied making Cat sit down in her chair and ponder the situation

 **"I don't think I should run this tape anymore then. It doesn't make any sense, this was here after the bomb went off at Chief Singer's place. Bombing your house while this was supposed to air is a bit of a stupid move don't you think?"** the media mogul voiced her thoughts on the matter

 **"We haven't been home since the attack on his apartment. Maybe someone broke in then and put the explosives in. But since we're so workaholic … we didn't even go back to our place for lunch either. The bomb could have been set up to explode earlier, maybe as a point for the ultimatum if we were to be hurt badly. Play the tape, let's see what's on it and then we can decide a course of action"** Barry replied with a stern voice and Kara agreed with him. They turned to the monitors that Cat had in her office and watched.

 **"Hello, National City. We are responsible for the bombings that are going to occur today in the city at multiple locations. This is a warning to all that try to expose our organization. Cease now, or you will be next. We want the cooperation between CatCo and the NCPD dissolved, the supplementary pages from the paper put to rest and the information expunged. You have 24 hours, or National City and all its inhabitants will suffer"** The tape was strange, it was like it was doctored. It had no background noise, no background to speak of, not ever a moving person just a graphic on it with a symbol.

 **"Kara, I've seen that before. It was on the crates that were at the site where we rescued Alex. Do you think those guys might have something to do with it?"** Barry asked his fiancée.

 **"Barry, we don't even know who those guys are, maybe it's time we found out. We need to get to the precinct and see what we can come up with on them. Also we should talk to Felicity, she might be able to help. Cat, since you transmitted this, is it possible you might have a digitized version of it?"** The blonde spoke

 **"Go down to the video department, I'm pretty sure they can give you what you need. Also, you said your apartment blew up. Do you have anywhere to stay for the night?"** the media mogul inquired.

 **"A hotel, I guess. We need brand new clothes and toiletries and everything. Ours got pulverized in the explosions"** Barry replied with a bit of annoyance.

 **"Hmm, that might not be as private as you need it to be in case there's a problem in town. As you might know I have enough space in my house. You can come live there until you find yourself another apartment, or another house"** Cat offered completely surprising the couple that was standing in front of her.

 **"Didn't you always enjoy living alone? I mean sure you have Carter, but he's mostly away at boarding school."** Kara looked at her former boss quite interested in what she had to say

 **"I do enjoy living alone, that is true. But I do consider you my friends, which is something the old Cat didn't ever thing she could say about someone. I find it perfectly acceptable that I offer my help when you need it, even if I don't get to do it my way, for a while. Don't you think?"** She gave them a grin **"Just … try to keep it down at night, will you?"** Barry and Kara started to blush. You would think that for two people that were about to be married talking about sex wouldn't be an issue, but those two still reacted the same especially when it came to Alex's or her remarks.

 **"Then we accept. We thought about running to Central City and take up temporary residence in the beach house that my twin bought, but it would mean that everything that happens in National City, we would be 4-5 minutes late to, because of the distance. Which could pose a large issue when most of the criminals these days work fast and always seem to have a plan"** Kara smiled at the media mogul

 **"Well that would be bad. I kind of realized that for someone with your speed a few seconds could mean the difference between all the people being saved or some people dying. That is one of the other reasons I offered too"** Cat looked at the couple that were smiling **"Go down to the video department, I'll sent word down there so you can get the clips you need form the tape. Good luck in finding these guys. Do it quick, if the threats are true when tomorrow's page with wanted criminals appears, there will be more attempts at people's lives. Or at least that's what they promised"**

 **"We will. See you later, Cat"** Barry replied and the two left straight for the NCPD after getting the clips they needed. Once there, even though it was evening, they called Felicity.

 **"Hey you two, what's new in the alien invaders department?"** she chuckled

 **"We have something strange. When we went to rescue Alex from the dominators, the site we were at had some boxes with this symbol. The same symbol popped up in a tape which had to be played by CatCo today, in the wake of some bombings in the police department. Can you find out where it's from? Or who is using it at least? That might give us a clue as to where to go and look next"** Kara replied.

 **"I can try, I'll let you know what I find out"** The answer came

 **"Thanks, we'll be here"** Kara closed the line and went to the DEO to give Winn the same information. He was going to try to get information from the military and all the agencies that the DEO had access. They both knew Felicity could hack them, but it was faster and easier to just use the access they already had. As the techie went to work, the two decided it was a good idea to go home and rest. They went through the stores and bought some pajamas just to make sure they had them and some house clothes, it was obvious that they couldn't run around Cat's house the way they would be doing in their own home.

It was pretty late when they two finally reached Cat's house. Just like any other person with sleeping issues she was in the kitchen getting some tea.

 **"Hello, you two. Wondered when you'd finally show up. Busy day?"** she smiled looking at them and seeing the bags that contained clothes.

 **"We tried to find out what they symbol on the tape means, but we have nothing so far. We have a friend from Star City that is looking into that for us"** Kara replied

 **"Where can we leave these, Cat?"** Barry asked motioning toward the two bags of clothes they had with them

 **"Last room on the right at the end of the hall is the guest room. It has everything you need including its own separate bathroom with tub and shower so we don't bump into each other in the morning. Which leads me to my other question. Are you guys going to wait for your apartment to get fixed or maybe buy another one?"** She asked sheepishly

 **"We haven't even thought about that to be fair. Why?"** Barry looked at the media mogul that had a grin on her face.

 **"You are supposed to get married, and considering the other discussions we've had I do assume you would want children. Does the apartment you now own have enough room for those?"** She stated bluntly making Barry and Kara blush heavily **"I swear sometimes you two don't even act like you're over 25. You did think about that, right?"**

 **"We did, but we thought we should take care of that when the time comes. It's not like we planned any of this ahead"** Kara managed to reply as they were headed out toward the patio for some tea.

 **"What better time than now? Your apartment was trashed, you lost almost everything inside. Consider it like a … new beginning of sorts"** she responded **"If you don't have the money available to buy one I can always help you with that. I hope it's not a money issue, is it?"**

 **"No, it was never a money issue. When Barry came to this earth he left the Allens in Central all his assets"** Kara started to explain

 **"Those assets are valued quite highly right now. Somewhere around 500 million? Or something to that effect if I remember correctly what I've been told. So no, this was never a money issue, we just never thought it was time"** Barry concluded his fiancée's thoughts.

 **"But maybe you`re right, Cat. Since now we don't really have a place to call our own, maybe it's time that we look for another one. What do you think about that, Barry?"** Kara looked back at the speedster.

 **"Maybe it is indeed time to do so. I'll talk to my younger self tomorrow so he can transfer some liquid assets to my account and we can start looking for something. To be fair, we have to think about the same problems that those two thought about when picking that penthouse"** Barry spoke lost in thoughts

 **"You mean that our kids might have powers? Yea, that is always something to think about. Why are you thinking of getting our own penthouse?"** Kara asked surprised while Cat was smirking looking at them.

 **"Maybe not a penthouse, we're not rich up to their level, but maybe a larger house, something with a back yard where the kids could run and not be seen by anyone? It would be a bit weird if someone looks in our yard and see the kids speed around trying to catch a butterfly or something"** The speedster replied making a fine point.

 **"I see you two need to think about it. I'm glad that you can buy whatever you want. Besides, if you needed money you can always ask me if you`re in a bind"** Cat offered surprising the two that were at the table. She smiled, she knew why she was making that offer, the two heroes never looked at her as someone rich and treated her with the same curtesy and no different than any other human. She, in turn, wanted to help them the same way they had helped her find a different goal.

 **"Thank you for the offer, Cat. I do suspect that as long as the Allens are still owners of STAR Labs, we won't have any issue with money. Barry even told us that in not so many words. That settles it I guess. We will start looking for a house tomorrow, or as soon as we have some free time. I would like to catch the bastards that blew up a perfectly good apartment just to make a point thought"** Kara voiced her thoughts and the other two nodded.

 **"Those people are dangerous. I'm glad they didn't manage to get to you, Cat. Your security people have been doing a bang up job since this whole bombing thing started."** Barry told the media mogul

 **"I'm glad that they managed to keep it under control, but you have to remember, everyone is susceptible to corruption, so I still have to be careful. Anyway, have a good night you two. I'll see you in the morning"** She smiled and headed up to her room leaving Barry and Kara to go to theirs. The two changed and fell asleep quite fast, they had been working a lot that day and the fact that they didn't manage to eat as much as necessary took a toll on their bodies. Barry made a mental note to go the next morning and bring a lot of food for them to recover.


	35. Search

The next morning Barry woke up and started to fidget around in the kitchen. Cat didn't have much in the way of consumables in her fridge, the speedster concluding that most of her eating was ordering out or simply going to a restaurant and having her fill there. He went out and bought materials for the usual pancake extravaganza that he would do every chance he got as long as they weren't pressed for time.

As he was cooking, he also started a pot of coffee which was soon filled as he was going about making breakfast. Kara soon joined him with her usual sleepy face. Her super smell alerted her that there was coffee and food.

 **"Morning, You do remember we're not in our apartment, right?"** She looked at him and smiled

 **"Good morning to you too. Yes I know we`re at Cat's but that doesn't mean I can't cook breakfast and make coffee. She can always join if she wants. I made sure that I covered all the basics considering we eat like to whales"** Barry chuckled while he continued to cook.

 **"Don't mind if I do. It's been a while since I had something homemade"** A voice greeted them from the door of the kitchen **"I only cook when Carter is home, the rest I just avoid it, or am too tired"**

 **"You cook?"** Kara looked at her rather strange

 **"Of course I do. I wouldn't give Carter fast food or pizza all day. That food doesn't have everything a growing boy needs to stay healthy"** she replied giving the blonde a grin.

 **"Morning, Cat. Take a seat and help yourself. I don't know where you put the syrup for the pancakes though"** Barry spoke as he was finishing the last batch.

 **"I don't have any. I always buy it when I know I'm going to use it"** She replied and Barry was gone, coming back in a few minutes with an assortment of small syrup jars for everyone **"Now I guess I do have it. You two have woven your abilities into your normal life just like I would consider clothing, huh?"** She inquired

 **"Mostly Barry. I can't move that fast and it would require me to go out wearing my costume and so on. He however can go out in shorts and t shirt and he moves so fast that nobody can actually see what he's wearing"** Kara chuckled.

 **"Don't lie, Kara. You use your speed for tasks as well. Sure mostly around the house but you still do. Especially speed changing"** Barry grinned

 **"I guess it would be normal to do that considering that you have that available to you. Hell, I would probably kill for a speed change option"** Cat started to laugh as she was eating some pancakes and made large eyes when the two finished their huge portions in the time it took her to eat half her plate. As they finished, they received a call

 **"Are you two all right? We saw what happened in National yesterday"** Caitlin's voice could be heard from the other side of the line.

 **"Morning, Caitlin. Yeah, we're fine. Barry told me to sit outside while he cleared the flames. The bombs were laced with Kryptonite"** Kara replied as Barry was washing the dishes that were already empty

 **"So they were a warning specifically for you and your cousin I take it. Do you have anywhere to stay at the moment?"** Young Barry's voice could be heard through the speaker.

 **"Hey, bro. We're staying at Cat Grant's place. She found out what happened and offered us a room until we find something to replace the bombed apartment"** older Barry chimed in

 **"Ah, I remember Cat, she came to the beach house on that day you FINALLY decided to ask Kara to marry you. I'm glad that you have somewhere to stay then. Did you think about buying a new house, apartment or … why not, maybe another penthouse?"** young Barry chuckled from the other side of the line.

 **"We're thinking about it. Don't worry, we'll tell you how much money we need and when we need it. I know you told us you`d help"** Older Barry chimed in.

 **"Good, that's what I wanted to remind you"** his younger counterpart smiled. Cat was making signs toward Kara. She still didn't manage to get an interview with the two owners of STAR Labs and maybe this was the time to ask

 **"Hey, Barry, Caitlin. Cat wanted to know if you'd be interested in giving her an interview for the paper. After the merger it turns out that not many people know about you two and the work you do"** Kara inquired the two that were on the other end of the line.

 **"You know we don't really do interviews, but hey, a friend of yours is a friend of ours. Have her come to the beach house when we're all gathered for something like an outing or BBQ and we can talk then"** Caitlin chuckled

 **"All right. Take care of yourselves and don't worry. If we need anything we'll call. Thank you so much for that"** The blonde alien expressed her gratitude

 **"Don't thank us for nothing. You know by now that you two are family. As for you, Kara, you'll be proper family soon enough. Take care yourselves. If the whole Kryptonite problem becomes too annoying, remember to call for backup"** Young Barry closed the line and the two cleaned up after Cat was done eating as well.

 **"There you go. Now you can get your interview the next time we go to Central City"** Barry smiled at Cat who seemed to be very happy about this predicament.

 **"Thank you. While many people in Central City already know them, here they are much of a mystery and shedding light on their activities would be beneficial for the image of the labs and everything they work for"** Cat smiled at the blonde. Another phone was ringing, this time it was Barry's

 **"Are you all right, you two?"** Oliver's voice was heard

 **"Nothing major. You know an explosion can't really put us down. Except when it's laced with liquid Kryptonite"** Kara replied **"Thank you for the concern thought, Ollie"** She smiled

 **"I managed to track that symbol you wanted me to look into yesterday"** Felicity's voice came from the other side of the line. **"It seems to be a shell company that was set up by the mother company that Damien Darhk was head of. It seems to have ties all within the government since it has stayed a large military contractor beside Wayne Corp. We already know that guy's dead, but the person that is running it has not yet come to light. He is a recluse and rarely is seen in public"**

 **"That has to be more than just simple coincidence"** Barry voiced **" Does it offer private security as well as other services?"**

 **"Yes, but their system is closed, I don't know who they have for a contractor. Why? Do you suspect foul play?"** the blonde inquired being curious about what the speedster was thinking.

 **"I do. I don't know if they are helping the aliens, or just making some money off of them, but in this case they can be treated as collaborators. It is entirely possible that the management of that corporation has been infiltrated and they are using it as a front for their operations. Can you dig deeper into that shell company?"** Barry explained what was behind the way he presented the problem

 **"I can, but it will take a while. I'll call you back when we have more. By the way, do you have where to stay?"** Felicity asked.

 **"We're staying at Cat's place for now, until we find something else that we like"** Barry concluded

 **"Ok, you two take care. Felicity will get back to you with any new developments."** Oliver's voice came from the phone.

 **"Thank you. Have a good day"** Kara closed the line. Cat was sitting in the corner with eyes like saucers looking at the two **"What?"**

 **"What's that about aliens and collaborators? Is it something I should be worried about?"** the media mogul asked as she was getting up to go get ready for work.

 **"Not as of yet. If you need to worry we'll tell you. For now there is nothing to indicate that there is an invasion imminent, although the fact that they are already here doesn't say anything to the contrary"** Barry told her and she seemed to calm down somewhat.

 **"It's high time that we go to work. I'm pretty sure Chief Singer would want our statements about what happened last night"** Kara realized. Barry nodded and in the span of less than 10 seconds the two were ready to go. Suits, weapons and badges were at their usual places. Cat smirked.

 **"See, I would love to be able to do that. Have a good day you two, it's time for me to get moving as well. We'll talk more tonight"** She smiled and went up to her room to get ready.

The couple went out the door and raced toward the NCPD, stopping as usual in the alley behind the precinct. The moment they went in the desk sergeant told them to go talk to the chief, which they promptly did, going straight for his office and going inside.

 **"I see the ultimatum those terrorists had Cat play wasn't as truthful as they wanted us to think"** Singer almost hissed looking at the two **"I heard about your apartment. Is anything salvageable from inside? Not only your things but something that would be considered evidence?"**

 **"More than likely not, sir. The bomb was different than the one in your apartment. Our contained highly combustible accelerant and something that I could only classify as Napalm. We were lucky the Flash was in the vicinity or else Kara and I would have had a really bad day. The trigger was the same as yours though, not when we were inside but when we opened the door"** Barry explained what he had managed to see the day before while putting out the flames.

 **"Another really similar thing was that the bomb contained liquid Kryptonite. Yesterday we managed to analyze the substance and we came to the conclusion that there was no point in putting it inside a bomb. It doesn't help with the explosion power, nor with the reaction speed. The only thing that it does help with is keep Superwoman away"** Kara continued her fiancée's thoughts.

 **"Why do you think that is? It's not like she would go into those crime scenes and investigate. She only helped to put out the fires and as far as I have seen when she came over to my apartment, she was not really affected by what was in there"** Singer voiced his thoughts

 **"I think the whole point was that she doesn't go in. There might have been something she could see that could give them away."** Barry interjected.

 **"I guess there is no point in sending you back to your apartment, to look for clues, is there?"** The Chief looked at the couple who shook their heads

 **"The fire lasted only a little while, but the napalm compound was bad enough considering that even half our fridge melted. I doubt we'll be able to find anything useful. But if you want us to go … we'll go look"** Kara replied.

 **"No, there's no point. If there was something lighter, and maybe part of your apartment would have been spared then I would have kept a little hope that there might be some evidence left. But if what you told me is true and only a few minutes of blaze completely melted part of your fridge, then more than likely all the evidence is calcified or melted. Keep at it. Ever since your apartment exploded there haven't been any other attempts, but something tells me since we aren't going to stop doing what they told us to, that the bombings will continue"** Singer said with disdain on his face.

 **"We're all over it. One of our friends from the DEO is tracking some evidence in the military branch that we couldn't track ourselves from the NCPD. We're waiting on answers"** Barry told him

 **"Which reminds me. Do you have anywhere else to live while your apartment is being renovated?"** Singer was concerned that the two would be practically homeless until them.

 **"My brother from Central City has a vacation house where we could go. But it's there. At the moment, Cat Grant was gracious enough to offer us her guest room, since she is living alone in a mansion"** Kara smiled

 **"Cat Grant offered you a place to stay? That is something that I wouldn't think she would do. However my opinion of her has very much improved ever since I met you two. You have a brother? You never mentioned him"** Singer smiled

 **"Yes, I do have a brother. A twin brother actually that shares my name. He and his wife are the owners of STAR Labs from Central"** Barry told him with a grin on his face.

 **"Wait, so … Barry and Caitlin Allen are related to you? I just thought it was a coincidence of names when I read the first time about them"** Singer had a surprised look on his face.

 **"Yes, Barry Allen is my twin brother. Just don't let it get around, we both have our own separate lives. He's a billionaire and I'm a detective at the NCPD"** Barry smiled.

 **"You do forget about the folio that you have with your brother. You know the one that basically makes you a millionaire"** Kara just hit the nail on the head as Singer's face fell to the ground.

 **"You know I don't really care about that as long as I have you. Although I might have to go into that fund so we can get a new house. Which reminds me, Chief, if there is nothing to follow up on, we'd like to head out and maybe look at some homes. I don't think our apartment will be livable anywhere in the next few months"** Barry looked at Singer who managed to get out of the shock of finding out that the two were basically millionaires.

 **"Sure. As usual if we get something you'll get a call to come help, but I do agree that getting a home is the larger priority here. I don't know how much time Cat will be able to host you two"** Chief Singer told the couple

 **"That won't be a problem, she told us that we can stay there as long as we need. She was very welcoming when she found out our home blew up"** Kara replied to the chief who motioned them away. The two exited the building and went back to Cat's. She had the foresight to leave one of the balconies on the upper floors open since she already knew that the two didn't really need a key.

 ** _"Where do we start then? In looking for a new house I mean"_** Barry looked at his fiancée while he was looking for something to eat.

 **"The best place would be to look on the internet. But since none of us has a laptop, I think we should go back to the precinct and look over there"** Kara had a point, neither of them had anything that would help them with that. The two never needed tech in their lives except at work. If anything they wanted to keep their work and home life separate.

 **"We should be able to find something. We can always make notes and call the agents. Since we don't know when we will be recalled to work, it would be prudent to just go and see the houses whenever the agent has time"** Barry replied to her while also figuring out that there was nothing to eat in the fridge. **"Come on. Let's get something to eat and then we should go back to the precinct to start our search. There's nothing to eat here at the moment and I'm not in the mood to cook. We would lose some time if I decided to do that"**

 **"All right. Donuts it is then. Let's go"** the blonde smiled at the speedster as they both left the house and went straight to their favorite donut shop. As soon as they finished eating they returned to the precinct. The chief saw them and asked what they were doing back starting to laugh when the couple told him that they didn't have any sort of computer at home to look for houses or to contact agents so they had to do that from work. He soon stopped however realizing that their house had been torched in a bombing and it would have made sense that they would have nothing of the sort. The two went up to the lab and started looking at houses.

 **"There doesn't seem to be much in the way of apartment vacancies in this city, huh?"** Barry looked a bit disappointed considering after the search he did there were only 2 places that were open to be bought.

 **"Not so much. National has always had an apartment issue. Back when I got mine, I searched for like 5 months to get it and waited another 2 for the bidding on it to finish. That was a real pain in the ass"** Kara made a grimace remembering the crappy times she went through that time.

 **"It seems that there are more houses available. Let me look into those"** The speedster replied while changing the search parameters. Much to his dismay the houses that were open were either too small or too far away from the city to be of any use. She detected the annoyance coming off of him

 **"Nothing in that category either?"** Kara asked

 **"There are a few, but some are even smaller than our apartment. Look at this, two bedroom home in the suburbs, no back yard and nothing else that comes with it. While I don't have an issue with the size, the suburbs would mean that we are quite a ways away from the city. With our speed we'd be better off living in Central"** the speedster told his fiancée.

 **"Keep searching I guess. We will have to get something eventually"** the blonde alien smiled at him and he instantly calmed down seeing

 **"Maybe it's time that we splurge on something way bigger. I didn't even dare to look at the other things except small houses and apartments. Since Caitlin and Barry already told us that there would be no problems with money … maybe we should just take the plunge"** The speedster replied, awaiting for her take on what he had said.

 **"I'm not the person that would need something like that. But I guess everyone is right, we will have children of our own one day and they should have space to run in. Hopefully with not too many walls since I suspect we'll be throwing most of our paychecks on patching them up"** Kara replied truthfully to his inquiry

 **"There is a caveat to that. I would look for a penthouse, but imagine what would happen if our child goes through a wall that's 30 stories up. He might not even have invulnerability since we have no idea which powers he will have and which he won't. I think best case would be for us to buy a large house somewhere. At least if he has my regeneration capabilities, falling down from 2-3 floors up won't mean much. While 30 is quite a lot. I don't think even I would come out unscathed out of something like that"** Barry reasoned. Kara saw that he had thought that through quite a lot, something that she always loved in the speedster. His planning capabilities got them out of trouble numerous times, or even avoided problems all together.

 **"I agree with you. A house it is then. Don't limit the number of rooms, we should at least get an idea of what we're dealing with and what are the prices"** She responded and came up behind him putting her hands on his chest and her head on his shoulder, watching what results would come up herself.

 **"Ok. These are what I found. 32 houses in the National City area. All with 3+ rooms"** He pointed at the screen

 **"Eliminate the ones that are in the suburbs. A 5 km radius in the city should be enough"** She replied and the speedster did as he was told. But as soon as he applied the filter, they both realized that the houses they were looking for were all mostly mansions in the richest district there was in town **"Great, so if we want an apartment in town we only have small ones, and a normal sized house or even an above average one are all in the suburbs. That's annoying as hell"**

 **"That's if we don't take into account that we need at least a little bit of space around the house for the children to play in. If I look for that"** Barry pressed some buttons and added the additional requirements **"All the results boil down to these three houses. All in the same neighborhood and all with pretty steep prices"**

 **"Well price isn't a problem, and even if it's a big house we can keep it clean and tidy with our speed. I think we should go see them. Wait, why does this address seem familiar to me?"** she pointed at one of the large abodes they were looking at. The speedster took the coordinates and punched up some maps.

 **"Because it's the house right next to where Cat lives right now. That would be something, us being neighbors"** Barry started to chuckle at the idea of them living next to the media mogul.

 **"If this is all we have, we should talk to the real estate agent and go see them as soon as possible. I don't think Cat minds us staying over that much, but I would rather have my own place to live"** Kara looked at Barry and then corrected herself **"Our own place to live"**

 **"All right, I searched, you call to setup the appointments"** the speedster grinned while he flashed out. It was already lunch and he came back a few minutes later with a few dozen pot stickers and some donuts which he deposited on one of the tables. While he was gone, Kara phoned the real estate agency and set up meeting for the three houses. They were large so they had to set a meeting for today and the last house that was next to Cat they would see the next day.

 **"Done. We're going to see two of them today, or better said in about 2 hours. The last one, the one that is near Cat, we'll see tomorrow morning. How's that?"** Kara asked her fiancée as they were both munching on food.

 **"Fine. So we have to finish eating and head out"** Barry replied as he was finishing a box of donuts. After the two ate and spent a little time resting, since eating was a very tiring sport for people that were gulping down more than 5 times to food that a normal human being would, they started on foot, taking a little stroll up to the first house which Kara had set them up to see. At the entrance, they saw a woman waiting for them.

 **"Good day, Are you Elisabeth?"** Kara sked politely

 **"Yes, you two must be Barry and Kara Allen"** The woman offered a hand. The speedster was a bit taken aback by the fact that the woman had addressed them as such

 ** _"That's how you introduced us?"_** He looked at the alien blonde and smirked

 **"No I did not, but I did say that my name was Kara and the person that was coming with me would be Barry Allen. I'm guessing from that she presumed we were married"** Kara replied to him and the turned to the sales agent **"We will be that, after a while"** She gave her a pleasant smile. The woman nodded seeing the large ring on her finger and invited them in.

As she started to present the property the two decided to talk amongst themselves. So she couldn't hear.

 **"The land around the house seems a bit small don't you think? It only took us like a minute to get to the house"** Kara discussed with him

 **"That could just be because it's closer on this side rather than on the back. We'll see when we get to the yard. Do me a favor though, scan the structure. Some of these old houses have just been repainted but underneath they are wrecks"** Barry replied to her and she realized that he was right. Even if the house had been renovated, her vision would give her more than enough information about the status of the structure.

The building was imposing, but also way too large. With its 32 rooms, not counting utility closets, bathrooms and other types, it was enormous.

 **"Here's the deal. Unless we plan to have 16 kids, this house is way too large for what we need"** Barry told his fiancée as the two were walking behind the agent.

 ** _"Maybe I do want to have 16 kids, who are you to judge?"_** Kara replied with a smirk and Barry was left speechless and with a face that not only denoted surprise but also terror.

 **"I hope you`re kidding. Even three kids with our powers would be way too much to handle. 15 of them would mean that we have to call everyone, Clark, Oliver, Felicity, Barry and Caitlin, Cisco and Bette, Firestorm and the time cops and even then, most of them are humans. Imagine the hospital bills for the poor things"** Barry replied with his face still frozen from her joke.

 **"Of course I'm kidding, your dork. While that might yet happen"** she winked leaving him to wonder **"This house isn't suitable. I took a glance at the superstructure and underneath. There are cracks everywhere that were covered up with fresh paint and patched in. There are a few places that if I just punch a wall, this whole thing could come down on itself. With kids that might go through walls, I don't think this is safe enough. One wrong move and the whole thing might fall down on our heads. I might be invulnerable, but you are not"** She replied, seriously this time.

 **"This isn't the one then. We should stop her until it takes too much time for the tour. Although the garden looks beautiful"** Barry pointed at the back yard who was carefully crafted into a garden that was extending up to the edges of the property

 **"Excuse me, Elisabeth? Can we go see the other house now?"** Kara interjected into the sales person's monologue

 **"Did you find something you didn't like at this location?"** she asked surprised considering the two were extremely silent while she talked.

 **"Not so much as didn't like, but the sheer size of this place is a bit overwhelming. It's just for us and whatever family will come after we get married. I sincerely doubt that there will be any circumstance in which we would need so many rooms. Buying a house just so that more than half of it is permanently empty is not how you buy a house"** Barry replied quite nonchalantly, but still courteous

 **"I understand. I would say so myself, it is a bit large for a family of two. Come on, the other house is further down the street"** She smiled as they exited the property and started to walk slowly toward the next house. **"If you don't mind me asking, is there any relation between yourself and the owners of STAR Labs?"**

 **"Yes, Barry Allen is my twin brother. But why would that interest you, Elisabeth?"** Barry looked at the agent quite creepily

 **"Just curious, Mr. Allen. Since you two have the same name, I thought it was either a coincidence or he decided to have someone else on the side except his wife. I see now that I was mistaken"** Elisabeth smiled at the two

 **"It happens a lot. Even if their own town, having two people with the same name is confusing for everyone. Don't worry about it. Also, I would suggest you don't ask questions that impede in people's lives. Even if he was that Barry Allen, it would be none of your business what he does"** Kara replied as they were approaching a large gate which the agent opened with a set of keys that she had on her person. The speedster was smiling, he knew Kara had some sass to her when it came to certain issues, but it was the first time that he saw it being applied to someone.

 **"Of course, you are correct. Just curious I guess. This is the second location. The house is smaller and the patch of land is larger than the first"** Elisabeth started her monologue again as she was guiding them through the front gardens to reach the house. The moment they did, Kara started to x ray the building.

 **"It seems fine to me, 16 rooms, two levels with 5 bathrooms and dependences, a kitchen and two living areas. It will be way more than we would need, but since our friends might drop by, the extra room would be welcomed"** Barry started to discuss what he was hearing from the real estate agent.

 **"There is just one slight problem. The basement is flooded, that includes everything that the house needs to maintain its temperature as well as a few other electrical key points. I would say that's fine, since we can take out the water in a flash"** He grinned at the statement **"Except the ground water is really high here. There is a spring straight to the east of the house that feeds directly into the basement"** Kara told him as they were looking around

 **"You mean no matter how much water we pull from the basement it will almost always fill up again?"** the speedster looked at her rather saddened.

 **"Precisely. Unless we pay to dig the spring out and capture it and use it for water which again would be pretty easy work just for us, but since we have to make sure it's done by a construction team, which might take a few weeks, I would rather not have the hassle. I'm not really picky about it, but the water that still is in the basement has begun to eat away at the support structure of the house as well"** the blonde alien looked closer and described what she was seeing.

 **"So the more we wait, the more damage it will do. That doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Let's call it a day then. We can go tomorrow and check out the other house and then we can decide. Although, seeing what we have seen, the only real hope we have is that the other one is better than these two"** Barry replied and then turned toward Elisabeth **"Mam, I think we have seen enough"**

 **"Do you want to buy it or skip?"** the woman inquired looking hopeful at the two

 **"Skip. There are some things that worry us"** Kara replied.

 **"What would those be, Mrs. Allen?"** Elisabeth was waiting for a few valid reasons.

 **"I would suggest checking the basement of the house. It's flooded. Not only that but the water that has been sitting there ever since the last owner sold it would have more than likely corroded and eaten away at the structure. I suggest if you really want to sell this property that the water is taken out and the source is either plugged or rerouted toward something akin to a pond or a small ornamental lake"** The blonde alien told her leaving her with a surprised face. She went immediately to check what she had heard and came back with a sad look on her face.

 **"You`re right. The basement is flooded. How did you know?"** she asked surprised.

 **"I have very good ears. Ever since we came here I heard water running and since there weren't any sort of springs or ponds nearby the only logical explanation was that the basement was either filling up with water or being flooded"** Barry explained in a manner that would not be strange to the woman in front of them, thus helping Kara avoid questions that would have been annoying.

 **"It's getting late. See you tomorrow for the third and final house?"** She asked with a smile on her face.

 **"Yes, 8 AM sharp at the address you told us"** Barry confirmed the meeting as they were coming out from the property and the woman closed the gate once more. She got into her car and drove away as the two sped directly into Cat's house. It was pretty late, the visiting had taken way more than they anticipated. The media mogul was waiting for them in the back yard with her usual coffee and reading something on her tablet.

 **"Did you find anything? I thought you two would start house hunting by now"** She smirked taking a sip of hot coffee.

 **"Nothing as of yet. Everything we looked at was either damaged, full of water or had cracks the size of fists in the masonry. Nothing that we would want to live in, considering our children might be strong enough to bust through walls"** Kara sat down with her while Barry went to the kitchen and got them both a cup.

 **"That's a bit shit. Do you have other places to see?"** Cat inquired

 **"Yes one more tomorrow morning. If that doesn't pan out we might have to reconsider where we want a house and how close to the city it should be . But we're hopeful"** Barry entered the conversation.

 **"Let us hope that is not the case then and you find something you like without changing what your initial plan was"** She replied while they started talking of other things. After a bit when they finished their beverages the couple went to bed. They both hoped that the last house they were going to visit would be better than the last two.


	36. Residence

Kara and Barry got up the next morning really excited about the house they were supposed to visit as their luck with the other two wasn't stellar. Cat had gone to work early so it was just them in the house. They got dressed and walked the whole street to waste some time, besides the weather was nice and the two wanted to get some air.

At 8 AM on the dot the two were in the front of the large gate that was down the street from Cat. Strangely enough, they thought it would be a short hike, only to figure out that it was nothing but. Elisabeth was waiting for them in front of the house.

 **"Good morning, I see you two are excited to see this property"** she looked at the two who were looking at the large gate.

 **"We're hoping this is something that we will actually be able to like and not have major damage to the building. You know how these old houses are"** Barry voiced while the agent was opening the gate and they walked inside. First thing they noticed was that the walls of the property were quite high and sturdy, also there were trees planted around the edges that covered it from any sort of view from outside. After about 5 minutes they exited the forested area and they could see how large the plot of land actually was. The house was in front about 200 meters from the edge of the forest with another set of living walls as you could call them. Shrubbery that was about 1 meter tall and that had brilliant red flowers was surrounding the building. There was also a large garage on the side with doors where the couple could store cars. They knew for a fact that it was useless for them to buy a vehicle to get around, but it would be useful when someone else came to visit that didn't have their unusual mode of transportation.

As they passed it Kara began scanning the building for abnormalities. Much to her delight, the structure, no matter how old it was had intact support struts and nothing seemed to give the impression of any kind of damage. The basement was intact, there was no water like in the other place and it seemed pretty large as well.

 **"One point. I didn't manage to find any structural weaknesses. So this house is already better than the two that we have been before"** Kara told her fiancée.

 **"I'm already liking it more than the others. Especially with the tree cover that faces the road and all around the property. That means we won't have problems if we use our powers around here as long as we're careful of people that would come in uninvited"** Barry smiled back at her while the agent got her keys out and opened the front door.

Strangely enough when they went inside they felt like they were back in the penthouse in Central City. The house had a similar design, a large staircase in the foyer as they entered which was split to the sides of the house. Above them the stairs went up to the second level which was something that they wanted to see.

 **"As you can see the structure is different than the other two houses"** Elisabeth began **"While it does indeed have 12 rooms, it is smaller than the original one which you decided to skip"**

 **"12 rooms sound fine. If we invite everyone here they will all have all the space in the world and more. Which is good, I would want to invite them over for a party or just a get together now and again"** Kara's face lit up

 **"I'm with you on that one. We keep going to Central City, but they never manage to come here. To be perfectly honest our former apartment couldn't have held them all there. We have too many friends and family"** Barry smiled.

On the bottom floor there was a kitchen and a bathroom which were on either side of a corridor that lead to something that looked like an office. It already had all the furniture and Barry noticed that all of it was solid oak, something that hadn't been manufactured in a long time in National due to the fact that it was heavy and the wood needed to be imported. As they walked around the room they saw a circular staircase that was going up. It seemed to go further than the first floor and it had no entrance to that floor either. The two decided not to ask what it was since the agent would probably get to that as well. The kitchen had a direct connection to the back patio, which could be closed with a pair of large shutters to limit access.

On the other side of the foyer there were two rooms. A large library which had shelves all around all filled with a myriad of book types. Barry managed to skim through them and found everything from philosophy to quantum physics. He was excited about them as was Kara. The other space was a large living room, at least 12 by 12 meters which had two doors that led out to the patio with the same shutter system that the kitchen doors had.

 **"Elisabeth, do all the lower floor windows have metal shutters?"** Kara asked interested about the security of the whole thing. They wouldn't want anyone coming in uninvited.

 **"Yes, at night, due to the integrated computer system all shutters on the ground floor close and are electrified. You might have not noticed, but the doors have them as well, including the front door, but they are hidden well in the walls. If someone tried to get in, they will receive a shock that will disable them without killing them"** the agent replied quickly seeing that she wanted to know more.

They went up to the first floor. On the side that had the kitchen above it there was a large game room with a pool table and a bowling alley. Barry was impressed that they managed to put something as large as that in a room that did not appear to be so big from the outside. Right next to it was another bathroom and beyond that one of the guest rooms. Facing the game room were another 4 rooms that were normal bedrooms, quite large and with the same oak furniture that seemed to be a theme in this house, in the middle of those there was another bathroom that would have probably served the four rooms around it.

 **"The game room will be a nice addition for the children. Small and big alike"** Barry started to chuckle

 ** _"You can't wait to play some bowling, can you?"_** Kara read him like an open book, especially when he said that the room was for big kids. There was only one person he could be referring to and that was himself.

 ** _"No I can't"_** the speedster acknowledged her suspicions.

On the other side of the large staircase there was another large guest room with its own bathroom. Four rooms on the side which had in the middle another common bathroom and right at the end something that looked like a storage room. The two noticed that the part of the wall which held the staircase from the first floor had no entrance here, Which meant that there was only one other exit.

 **"This level is all rooms, if anyone come to stay over then we have a place to stay for everyone. Maybe even more than Barry and Caitlin have in their penthouse. Not that I'm comparing or anything"** Kara explained

 ** _"You are correct. There is even room for multiple children. Since you decided to have 15 of them"_** Barry grinned and Kara started to blush so hard that the creeping red color on her face almost replaced her usual skin tone. The blush was so hard that even her ears started to become red.

 ** _"You do know I was kidding, right?"_** She managed to utter only to see her fiancée with a grin on his face **_"You`re pulling my chain, aren't you?"_** she asked quite bluntly while calming down a bit.

 **"Of course I am. But it was all so worth it just looking at you go red in the face"** He started to chuckle in a low voice so that he would not disturb the agent.

They went up another level and noticed that the stairs that they saw from below came up from either side and converged in front of a large double door. On both walls as the stairs came up were two circular staircases that lead to two points of access to what they could only figure out to be some sort of attic.

 **"This is the master bedroom. Since the house had a different design before the previous owner bought it, the last floor was converted into this"** Elisabeth explained.

When they entered the two were stunned. All the floor was one big room, which contained one large bed in the middle. On both sides there were walls that delimited rooms. One of them was a large walk in closet and the other was a bathroom. But not any kind of bathroom, it contained a Jacuzzi, a large tub which was more than likely meant for two persons and two showers instead of one. The toilet was on the back wall as well as two large sinks and half a wall of mirrors above them.

The room had inside shutters that would open and close to keep the people inside away from light, but they were metal as well and electrified just as the ones on the lower floor. What surprised them immensely was that on either side of the bed and the night stands there was a large door which lead out to a balcony. The view in itself was breathtaking. The house was on the top of a hill with a cliff side that overlooked National City. That part had been intentionally left bare of trees so that they could enjoy the view of the city. In the back of the room on the left side corner there was the staircase that was leading down to the office.

 **"This is amazing. The room in itself is something that you can see the previous owner has put a lot of thought into. It has practically everything. Even a nice balcony with a beautiful view"** Kara looked very excited as she said this

 **"Now look who's being excited. You would love to have breakfast every morning looking over the city wouldn't you?"** Barry started to chuckle seeing her reaction

 **"Me, you and a beautiful view. What else more would you want? At the old apartment the only view I had was the skyscrapers in front of it with the large publicity panels. This is quite a dramatic change from that"** She quipped

 ** _"Besides, the things we can do in that Jacuzzi"_** Barry left his thoughts to trail off and when he turned he saw Kara blush hard. It wasn't his intention but from the silent nod she gave him, she was thinking about something similar.

The three went back down and went out in the yard behind the house. It was pretty large and contained another Jacuzzi and a pool. Gardens on either side and in the distance a stretch of meadow which was topped off by a large railing that was put at the top of the Cliffside. The two went to there and saw that there was a drop straight down, there was no way someone could climb that unless they had specific gear.

 **"Isn't this a security risk? I mean with a few climbers you can come in the back door and nobody would be the wiser"** Kara pointed out that little flaw

 ** _"I think it can. Maybe we should ask"_** He returned and saw Kara nod. **"I know it's nice to have a cliff face for a view, but this isn't a security risk? I mean people that can climb can come up and simply get inside the house. I'm surprised how the previous owner didn't see that as a problem"**

 **"This particular cliff face is a natural monument and home to some pretty special plant species. Nobody is allowed to scale it from below or from above. If that isn't enough, the City has made sure that doesn't happen by hiding electrified wires in the rock wall. People would not be able to climb it at any rate. You two will be perfectly protected here"** The agent voiced putting their worries to rest.

 **"Right then"** Barry looked at the sales agent **"Now for the elephant in the room. What's the price?"**

 **"The house, and everything around it that I have shown you, is priced at 10 million dollars. The bid starts at 7 million and a half, if that is the way you wish to purchase it"** The agent told them

 **"Somehow I thought it would be way worse priced. That will be good"** Barry checked his phone and opened the banking app and checked the balance that he still had in the account. As per the discussion that he had with his younger self there were already 10 million on top of the money he still had in there from the other instances he had put money aside, from the time that he wanted to take Kara out on a date, including the money that he put aside for his proposal, for which he didn't use a dime.

 **"What will it be then? Do you want to go with the bid or with the buyout?"** She asked looking at the couple who seemingly ignored her other remarks.

 **"The buyout. Send me the account for the payment and you will receive your money. I want the papers done as soon as possible, it just so happens that we don't really have a place to stay now since our apartment was blown up. The sooner you can get us that the better"** Barry made sure that it wouldn't take a month to get their papers so they could move in as fast as needed inside the new home.

 **"I can have them ready by tomorrow. Is that satisfactory?"** She punched up an account number on her phone **"As soon as I get the transfer for the selling price"** Barry transferred the money from his own account and they started back with the sales agent already talking to some of her contact to get everything ready. The visit had taken quite a lot longer than they expected, it was already afternoon so the two decided to leave to the precinct and check if there weren't any sort of pending cases that needed the expertise of a CSI. There was nothing else to do, but on their way out they got stopped by Chief Singer.

 **"How is it, you two? Did you find a place yet? Or you haven't even started to look?"** He asked. He liked them and he was worried about the fact that their apartment had blown up for the simple reason that they were cops.

 **"Yes, we did. We already bought it and we expect the papers to be done by tomorrow morning, at which point we can start moving in and bring in whatever else is necessary in our day to day lives"** Barry smiled at the Chief.

 **"So what did you buy? Just a normal apartment in yet another part of town? Or did you finally think to buy a house in the suburbs, considering that you two are about to get married?"** the curiosity got the better of the good Chief.

 **"We bought a house. But it's not in the suburbs, it's actually in town"** Kara smiled

 **"There are no houses in town, unless you count those on Marshal Way. But that is the rich district, nobody without at least a few million dollars in his pockets would even try to get a home there"** Singer managed to voice his thoughts. Then he remembered the discussion from the previous day, somehow it totally escaped him the fact that Barry Allen indeed had that kind of money.

 **"Yes, actually the house we bought is on Marshall Way. To be more specific, 1 Marshal Way"** Kara smiled at the Chief leaving him with his jaw on the floor.

 **"Wait, you bought the house that is right next to Cat Grant? The one on top of Monument Cliff?"** He spoke not believing what he had heard from the two

 **"Yes, that's the one. We wanted something different, but we either found 2 bedroom apartments in the city, or a house in the suburbs. As much as I have been raised in the suburbs, I don't like to live there. We wanted something close or even in the city. Monument Cliff is inside the city, so … we thought, why not. Since money wasn't a problem anyway"** Barry explained their thinking to Singer who smiled.

 **"So, you played the rich couple card"** He smirked

 **"Chief, we would have been ok with a larger apartment to be perfectly honest. But a two bedroom won't be so helpful since both of us want to have kids. Suburbs won't work either, since I don't like them at all and Barry would rather be close to the city. If there wasn't such a shortage of places to buy then we would have probably gone with something much smaller and way cheaper. But if that is the only thing that met our needs, we bought it anyway. We didn't play the rich couple card, it was simply something that we had conditions for and that house is the only thing that fit"** Kara outlined her thoughts trying to not give the impression to Singer that they just wanted to brag about their purchase.

 **"Congratulations on the new house. At one point if you two decide to hold a party or something, I'd like to come visit. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to see the view from that cliff, but seeing as the whole property was closed to visitors and the other owners were pretty much recluses, not even the police had much access there"** Singer told the two which smiled at one another.

 **"Don't worry, Chief. You are welcomed to come over anytime. Just wait so we can get the house decent enough for visitors. Right now it's not."** Kara chuckled.

 **"I'll hold you to that"** Singer retorted **"I have to go, I'm looking for a place myself after my apartment blew up"**

 **"How is that going along?"** Barry inquired knowing that the Chief had the same issues they did, only not the same amount of money to make everything happen.

 **"Slowly. My apartment is in renovations right now. It wasn't damaged as extensively as yours was. But it will still take a few weeks to get it livable again. I just need to go and oversee the construction and not forget to pay the hotel for my family"** He looked a bit annoyed that the construction workers weren't moving faster.

 **"How about this? Let us get our house in order and you and your family can take up a guest room until your apartment is done. That way you won't need to worry about the hotel fees and anything related to that"** Kara offered

 **"It's fine, I wouldn't want to take up one of the rooms that you might use"** Singer smiled at the two

 **"Chief, the house has 12 bedrooms not taking into account the master bedroom. I think we have enough space to offer you what Kara just did"** Barry said with a smile on his face.

 **"Ok then. I guess it's a deal. You need to tell me when I can come with my family thought. You did say you need to clean up the house"** He replied.

 **"Yes, we will tell you don't worry. But you can stay with us until your own house is renovated"** Kara chimed in

 **"Thank you. That will be a real help. I do hope they finish faster, I miss that old apartment to be honest"** Singer replied with a large smile on his face.

 **"All right. We'll let you know when you can move in. We need to go now, it's getting late and we do need to get to Cat's before the gates are closed though"** Barry replied. The chief waved them off after saying thank you once more and the two got out of the precinct. Kara sped around the city to get some pizzas and donuts and Barry left for China, the couple meeting up again after a few minutes in the patio at Cat's. They entered the kitchen and deposited the large amount of food on the table starting to eat.

Cat was late, so the two decided to just go get some rest for the evening. They knew that they had a long day ahead of them. A whole house to clean and to put in order. While that would not prove so difficult with the speed the two possessed, it would more than likely tire them and they didn't want to send for help on a cleaning job although, as Kara pointed out, 3 speedsters were better than one. However Barry replied that this was no emergency to call them so they had to make due. The blonde agreed, nothing was threatening National City at the moment and calling them just for a cleanup job was … a bit weird. Not that they wouldn't come help, but it wasn't really their problem since it wasn't their house.

The next morning they were greeted by a smiling Cat who was in the kitchen making some coffee.

 **"Late night, huh?"** Barry smiled at the media mogul who nodded

 **"Had to go to a party to mingle with the rich crowd of the city, it was boring, but I couldn't leave till well after midnight. I'm going to be half asleep all day today because of it"** she said with a bit of annoyance in her voice **"What about you? Did you manage to find something you like? Or nothing yet and you`re out house hunting today as well"**

 **"Oh no, we found what we wanted yesterday morning. We already bought the house and we're waiting for the agent to make the final property papers. Then we can move in and start cleaning everything"** Kara smiled

 **"Nice, so … what did you buy?"** She asked curiously

 **"Well, we first wanted a larger apartment, but that seemed pretty painful to find since there is a shortage. Then we moved to a house, but those were just in the suburbs. The only houses we found actually in the city were the ones in this neighborhood. After careful consideration and going to each one to see it, we bought one of them"** Barry added

 **"So we're going to be on the same street. That is something I never thought would happen, so which house is it?"** the media mogul inquired again

 **"1 Marshal Way. Or better said, the one right next door to you"** Kara grinned **"So we're going to be neighbors, not just living on the same street"**

 **"Wait, you two bought the Vetrier mansion? That's wonderful, now you can come over for tea every morning if you want to, or I can come over to you , although I don't really enjoy walking through the woods"** Cat quipped

 **"We're going to make a path at the back end of the property so we can come and go as we please. That applies to you as well. But more than likely it will be us coming over to you since we can be there in less than a few seconds. However, if you should wish to come over, you`re always welcome"** Barry grinned at the media mogul who smiled in return.

 **"We'll figure that out as we go. When do you have to go meet the agent?"** she looked at the couple and took a sip of her coffee. They wanted to go outside, but the weather started to become cold. No wonder since it was November.

 **"At 9 AM. By the way, we will be hosting Chief Singer and his family for a while. As you might have heard his apartment was blown up by a bomb the same day ours was. I hope that won't deter you from coming over"** Barry decided to mention that small fact to make sure that no conflicts would arise.

 **"No, it won't don't worry. While I personally don't really like the man and he obviously doesn't like me, that won't stop us from being polite and civil with each other. Remember at the Museum opening we got along just fine"** the media mogul grinned **"Anyway, I need to get ready for work. I'll see you tonight, either at your place or here if you decide to remain for another night"**

 **"Take care, Cat"** Kara voiced and the two went to meet Elisabeth. She was like always punctual and was waiting for them in front of the house with a large set of keys and some documents. She had drawn up the papers to be for Barry and Kara Allen. That didn't really bother the couple since they were going to be married soon enough. They thanked her for the help, took the documents and the keys and started on their way toward the house which was now theirs.

 **"If you would have told me a few years back that I would be living in a mansion with the man I love and I am about to marry, I'd have thought of you a total fool. I didn't even think I would find someone after the whole messes that I have been through with relationships. Caitlin's words did give me some hope that I would find someone, but not this soon"** Kara told him as they were waking hand in hand on the large alley that was connecting the gate to the large house.

 **"Me neither. I don't think I told you since we didn't really care what happened in my timeline, except the obvious informational purpose and you being curious, but the whole bombing thing that is new. Back in my time I and the other Kara were still living in the same apartment. So this whole, being rich, buying mansions and stuff is all new to me as well"** Barry replied as they were walking

 **"Oh well. We'll get used to it … someday. Although to be honest I care way less about the house compared to the person I am going to share it with"** she replied giving the speedster a short kiss. The two decided there wasn't time for lollygagging around so they sped to the house and started to clean inside.

One large surprise that they both had was the attic. The agent didn't take them up there while they visited and they thought it would be filled with junk. It wasn't, it was extremely clean, almost like the former owners lived here more than in their own room. There was a telescope in there that had been forgotten or maybe left when they left. The structure of the roof however was really odd. As they looked up they saw that it was made of glass, above which there was the actual roof.

 **"Why would they build it this way. It makes no sense to build the underneath out of glass and put the roof over it. What's the point of it being transparent if all you can see are the girders above it?"** Kara looked surprised at the weird construction

 **"That doesn't really make any sense. Look at that telescope, it's pointed at an angle where you would see nothing, unless it has been moved. There are only 4 windows and those are not on the actual roof but on the walls that hold it up"** Barry followed her train of thought with some of his own

 **"Could have they been peeping on other persons through that?"** Kara suddenly realized what it could be used for.

 **"I don't know. Here. Stand where the telescope is and use your vision to scout around. See if it would offer you any sort of vantage point toward any of the other houses in the neighborhood"** Barry suggested and she did exactly that. From that spot there was no direct route to any of the other houses, the trees that surrounded the house and were rather large blocked any sort of avenue that would permit the last owners to see anything beyond them.

 ** _"No. I can't see anything. This makes no sense."_** Kara spoke and took a look around the attic with her vision finding out that the roof was tied into a mechanism that had hidden connections to a lever on the wall. **_"Barry, pull that lever will you?"_** she pointed at what she saw and her fiancée went and activated it. A loud noise was heard and the roof started breaking into pieces. Large portions of it that were starting to come off and move toward the side sliding into place on either side. The outside roof was no more, instead the inner roof made of glass was there and they could see everything around them

 **"Wow, this is beautiful. Now I see what the actual role of the glass roof was. You can see almost everything from here"** Barry managed to utter as he looked around. He ran down and saw that the pieces that were hydraulically moved by some mechanism had settled in a manner that looked almost like a fence around the glass room leaving it open to the light of the sun. He ran back to Kara **"This would be an amazing room where you could recharge whenever you`re tired. With a little bit of tweaking the light of the sun could be collected and amplified to you, just like your suit does it when it turns transparent"**

 **"No, that would mean that I would be the only one that would be able to come up here because of the heat. I want to leave it just like it is, so we can both enjoy the sky and the stars at night as well as the sun in the daytime"** She replied while slowly dancing around the room. Her moves were graceful and slow. Barry was stuck watching her more than watching the sky outside.

They decided to close up the roof since there was something that looked like a storm in the distance, but they made a mental note about the beautiful spot that would be reserved just for them. Somewhere they could go bathe in the light of the stars and watch the sunrise and sunset.

Even with their speed, the cleanup operation took a little over 7 hours. While that was something akin to a full day at work, the couple was happy with the job they did. The house was dirt free with everything that needed cleaning already done. They even cleaned the pool and the outside Jacuzzi, even if the temperature wasn't really optimal for using them.

 **"Considering we only have a few things to put in the large dressed upstairs, don't you think it might be high time we went and bought some new clothes? We've been wearing these suits for since the day our apartment exploded"** Barry looked at the clothes they were wearing.

 **"I would agree with you. These clothes need to be washed and we need to wear something else. Come on, since we already finished, we can go to the precinct and tell Chief Singer that he is welcome to bring his family over whenever he likes and we should go shopping"** Kara agreed with her fiancée.

They left the house and went to the precinct. Nobody knew what happened to them except Singer told the others that he had given the CSI's a few days off in order to get their living arrangements in order, so most of the detectives were actually pretty surprised to see them at work. They talked to the desk sergeant to make sure the Chief was free and went straight to his office.

 **"Hello, Chief. You said to drop by and tell you when you can bring your family over. We're done with the cleaning so tonight would be a good time. We need to go do some shopping for food and clothes since ours got carbonized in the fire, but after that we should be at home"** Kara spoke with a large smile on her face.

 **"How did you two even manage to get that house so fast in order. I did ask before, but do you guys have super speed or something?"** he reiterated one of his earlier questions.

 **"Who knows, maybe we might"** Barry grinned leaving Singer with his face on the ground. **"The real estate agent helped us a lot. Since yesterday she had a crew cleaning the house for us so this morning when we went back, there wasn't nearly as much to be done as we were initially thinking."**

 **"All right then. Well, you`re still off for today, so go do what you have to do. I'll get my car and my family and we'll be there later this afternoon"** He replied.

 **"One reminder thought. Cat is a good friend and she might drop in rather frequently. I hope that won't be a problem"** Barry told the Chief who was checking some papers on his desk.

 **"No, I thought that might be the case anyway now that you two are neighbors. We can work it out, there's no reason for us not to be civil about it. Besides, if she is indeed your friend, I doubt I won't be able to get along with her, if she keeps the same demeanor she does with you"** Barry and Kara were a bit surprised by that statement, but Singer continued **"I have seen now on several occasions how she acts around you two. You were right, the persona she puts out for the others is either a fake one or just the face she displays for people that like to suck ass to get ahead. She seems a pretty interesting person otherwise"**

 **"Glad you figured that out, sir. She is indeed a great person, once you get to know her"** Kara replied while the two were getting out of their chairs **"We're off, we'll be expecting you to drop by later then?"**

 **"Yes. After 7 PM when I get off work, that will be the first thing I do"** he assured them. The two nodded and left for the city to do their shopping.

First and foremost they went and bought three more suits each. Mostly black, but not all of them. This time Kara decided that she would take the skirt version of them as well as the pants version. She was thinking about that discussion she had with Barry a long time ago about her actually wearing skirts to work. While she didn't really see herself doing something like that, it would have been a great way to get more sun into her cells, something that the normal suits would barely permit.

 ** _"So you finally decided to wear a skirt at work?"_** Barry snickered eyeing her as she tried on the suits she wanted

 **"It will help me get more sun in my cells, besides I know you like the view. But if you think that I'm going to bend over to look for evidence in them, you are sadly mistaken, mister"** She gave him a large grin

 ** _"Aww, and here was I hoping that you would do that as well"_** He started to chuckle prompting her to hit him on the arm playfully.

 **"Barry Allen, you are such a perv, you know that?"** She snickered.

 **"Sure I am. With such a beautiful fiancée who wouldn't be?"** he started to laugh looking at her.

The next order of business was house clothes. That would be easy to fulfill, they got themselves two sets of track suits that would be worn when they had guests, the rest, shorts and a lot of different t shirts with all the brands they could gather. There were Flash ones, Blitz ones, frost ones and she even got a few Green Arrow ones just to annoy Barry.

 **"If Oliver gets the idea you prefer him more than me, I'm definitely not talking to you anymore. He will never let me hear the end of that"** Barry cringed seeing her buy them.

 **"Oh, I don't really care what idea he would take out of that one. Besides, I'm pretty sure you'll talk to me if one of those Green Arrow t-shirts is the only thing I'm wearing"** Kara started to blush slightly at the image of that, but Barry had a large grin on his face.

 **"I would rather you not wear anything, but heh, if that's what it takes then I guess I will have to rip them off of you"**

 **"Barry Allen, there will be no t-shirt ripping. If you ask nicely enough you can always take them off me, but now that we actually have money to live in a mansion, that doesn't mean we get to destroy clothes"** Kara was surprised how much resistance Barry was showing at her buying a few simple shirts **"Be honest with me, did something happen in your timeline that made you think that way?"**

 **"Just like I told you. Oliver saw you wearing his shield a few times and the started to tease me about how my girl of steel liked to wear his shirts more than mine. It was a bit annoying to be honest"** Barry told her the truth having no reasons whatsoever to lie.

 **"Your girl of steel will wear whatever she sees fit. If Oliver starts with that, send him to me. But you know he loves to tease you, almost like he's an older brother. I think he will do that no matter what I wear."** Kara smiled at him

 **"You`re right. If this isn't it then I'm sure he will find something else to tease me about. Meh, I'll have to deal with him in a way that shuts his mouth"** Barry grinned at her

 **"Oh we will, don't worry. I don't like someone making fun of the man I love, even if that person is family"** the blonde alien assured him. **"I'm pretty sure I can ask Felicity to wear a few of your shirts so we can turn it back against him"** she gave him a large grin

 **"You wouldn't"** Barry looked at her and she nodded happily holding the same grin as before **"Yes, you would. Well, that answers that then. Just have to make sure that if I tease him I'm ready to catch an arrow. I'm not impervious to damage like someone I know"**

After they had done that, something caught Barry's eye in a store window. There were two silk bathrobes that in his mind Kara would look wonderful in. He went inside and bought them on the fly, Kara looking at him rather strange.

 **"What? We will have to wear something when we get out of that Jacuzzi in our room, won't we?"** He replied to her

 **"That's kind of optional, you know. That whole floor is ours so we don't have to wear anything when we come out of that Jacuzzi. But I like the way they look, so, why not"** She replied to him while they were carrying the clothes back home. They had quite a few bags and no free hands to buy food, which prompted them to return. They put everything in their chosen places and ran back into the city.

Barry thought it prudent to buy some other types of clothes in case they would be entertaining guests, so they stopped again at a store where they bought five different dresses for Kara, Barry being in the changing room and enjoying every moment of her changing, then he got two more suits that were not for work, but for a party. After that they had to run home yet again to leave their clothes, but returned to town a second time, where the first stop was the donut shop. Running around and after the 7 hour cleanup job they were hungry as hell.

The two finished eating and continued their shopping spree with essentials for the house and last but not least, a ton of food.

 **"Barry, do we even have enough freezer space to buy all this stuff?"** Kara inquired

 **"I actually don't know, sweetie. I didn't really pay attention, but to be fair I didn't see any sort of freezer in the house. Wait here, I'm going to go check"** he replied and was gone. He came back after a couple of minutes.

 **"You`re the fastest man alive, what took you so long?"** She chuckled making fun of him

 **"I didn't know where to find the freezer. We have two medium ones in the kitchen behind a small fake wall and really large one in the basement. It looked like it was designed to store a lot of meat. So yes, I think we have all the space we need to buy all of this stuff and more"** the speedster replied

 **"Good. Then it means we can buy more, I know you like to cook and I like to do so too with you, no point in just eating pizza all day. Pot stickers however are still on my menu"** she grinned. It took them another hour until they finally returned home. They changed into house clothes and started putting everything away until they heard an unfamiliar sound. Something was beeping, like an intercom of some sort. They found the unit in the foyer and Barry answered. It was Singer, he was at the front gate and he needed to be let in. Barry did so and they continued to put the food in its place with their speed as long as they didn't have guests. They barely managed to finish when someone knocked at the door.

 **"Welcome, Chief. Come in"** Barry replied and shook the hand of the man that was at the door. Behind him there was his wife and his two children.

 **"No point in calling me Chief while we're not at work, Barry. My name is Mark. This is my wife Alyssa and my two children, Andrea and Timothy"** He presented his family. Kara came into the room. **"This is Barry Allen and his fiancée Kara Danvers. They are colleagues of mine down at the precinct"**

After the introductions were over, the couple showed the Singer family to their rooms. Mark was surprised, the house was enormous, but he started to fidget when the couple told him they would occupy more than a room.

 **"You sure we can have more than one, I mean the guest room you put us in is huge"** He kind of backtracked.

 **"There is no one else here at the moment, so as long as we don't need the space I don't see why the kids shouldn't have their own room. Besides, we don't really have furniture that would allow them to sleep with you. If you haven't seen, there is only one large bed in each room, they weren't made to hold more than two people. While that might change later, that's how it is now"** Kara said with a serious tone.

 **"Don't worry about it, just make yourselves at home. You will be here for a while"** Barry replied making the chief and his family smile **"You two, would you like to see the game room?"** the speedster smiled at the children who instantly started to smile. He went with them to show them that, leaving Kara with Mark and Alyssa down in the kitchen.

 **"This is a beautiful house"** Mark's wife interjected in the conversation **"It must have cost a ton"**

 **"It did, but it was the only thing that was even near to what we wanted. We already told Mark why we bought this instead of a normal apartment"** Kara smiled while she was getting some tea ready.

 **"It does help having a fiancée whose a millionaire though, doesn't it?"** Mark started to chuckle.

 **"It does indeed, but you know he doesn't care about that. He just wants me and I have nothing to argue when that is concerned, since the last thing on my mind right now is how rich he is. I knew him when he had nothing and back then, just like it is now, I only wanted him. Nothing has changed in that regard. Besides, the Allen family is filthy rich, me and Barry on the other hand, we just want to live our lives with each other, have a family and children together"** Kara replied surprising the two people that were at the table.

 **"This Barry Allen is the brother of the man who owns the STAR franchise. Labs, STAR West and the other laboratories all over the country"** Mark explained to his wife.

 **"Ah, all right, I had no idea who Kara was talking about"** Alyssa replied. **"I should go check on the children, no offense to your fiancée, but I am not really comfortable not having them around, since this house is so large"** She went up while Mark and Kara continued to talk. She watched from the door while the speedster was playing with the children. It was all fun, he was making sure that the two would not hurt themselves either with the large bowling balls or with other things that were in the room. Seeing that he is very careful, Alyssa calmed down a bit and went back to the kitchen.

 **"Back already?"** Kara asked her with a large smile.

 **"Yes. He will make a great father one day, Kara. I was watching him as he was playing with our kids. He has an innate talent for it, that I don't think he even knows about. The kids are safe with him, Mark, no point in keeping an eye on them"** She told her husband who nodded.

 **"I know he will. He might be a large child at heart, but he is a very responsible person when push comes to shove. That is one of the many reasons I love him so much"** the blonde replied to her guests.

The first thing that Mark did was to go outside to the end of monument Cliff and watch the sunset with his wife. Kara remained in the house and watched Barry play with the kids, not interfering in the laughter and the fun that the three were seemingly having. However, he did manage to catch her watching.

 **"Not keen on playing with the kids?"** He asked while he watched Andrea

 **"Oh, I'm keen on playing with the kids, but when I see you with them I start to think Alyssa might be right"** She offered him a bright smile.

 ** _"What was she right about?"_** the question came while the speedster helped Timothy throw a large bowling ball down the ramp

 **"That you will make a great father someday. You have an innate talent when it comes to children that even you don't realize. That's why I'm just sitting here watching, I love seeing you play with them"** The answer came and he smiled brightly. She did come in however and the couple started to play with the kids while Mark and Alyssa were watching the sunset from the top of Monument Cliff.

Night was settling in after the couple finished playing with the children. Everyone went to their rooms as Barry and Kara went up to the master bedroom and locked the door. They liked that it had that feature, while they knew their guests would more than likely knock and not enter unannounced, the children might have.

The two were beat from all the work that they had put in for the day so they took a bath together and just plopped into the bed going to sleep quite fast. It was the first night of many that they were going to spend in this new home. Their home.


	37. Redecoration

Barry and Kara got used to the family that was now living with them rather fast. The only thing that they had a problem with was that Chief Singer didn't know who they were, that meant any sort of speeding and lightning flashes in the house, along with running, Kara lifting heavy stuff in the view of the others or even anything related to their powers had to be hidden. That in itself was a bit annoying, but the couple did invite them over and now they had to deal with it.

The Chief's apartment was only a week off from being finished and as much as they liked not being alone in the house, they couldn't wait for them to leave. That in itself sparked a little dissension between Kara's thoughts, but that got taken care of rather fast. The property seemed all right at the start, but as they started to live there, some of the problems became glaringly obvious. There was no central heating system, most of the temperature control in different rooms was done via fireplaces. As nice as those looked, they were not efficient in the slightest.

 **"I think we might have to get ourselves a central heating system"** Kara looked at her fiancée as they were making something to eat in the kitchen

 **"You might be right, I don't think we have where to buy the wood necessary to keep using these fireplaces as we've been doing. It can get pretty cold in our bedroom at night"** Barry replied continuing what he was doing.

 **"You do know that will more than likely require an overhaul of the house, Do we really want to do that now, with winter so close?"** the alien blonde asked as she was sitting down on one of the chair that were available.

 **"I think it's mandatory that we do that now. Imagine cold winters with only one fireplace in our bedroom. I'm pretty sure we will freeze our butts off in there"** the answer came swiftly

 **"I know I won't, you're always warmer than I am so I can use you for heating"** Kara chuckled. The speedster's enhanced metabolism made it so he would put out heat even when resting.

 **"This is the beginning of me being demoted from fiancée to heating element. How the mighty have fallen"** He chuckled prompting Kara to get up and give him a kiss.

 **"No, you aren't demoted, you dork. But you might be right. We should go see if we can't install central heating in the house and how much would it take to do so"** The blonde acknowledged his concerns. Mark was already gone to work, the kids were at school, but Alyssa was still in the house. She had lost her job due to a misunderstanding with her boss and she never managed to get another job for a while. She came down to the kitchen where he found the two discussing.

 **"Morning. I didn't know you were still here, I thought you would have left for work"** she greeted them

 **"Good morning, no we're still here. After we bought the new house, Mark decided to make our schedule flexible, so we can take care of settling in and do whatever we need to feel like at home. He is going to call us, or any other detectives that require our CSI expertise. Same will happen if they come across a case that has strange overtones"** Kara explained to the woman that got herself some tea and sat down at the table

 **"Good timing though. Alyssa, we saw that your apartment had central heating. Do you know where you got it? Or who did you speak to so that you can get that installed?"** Barry chimed into the conversation

 **"No, the apartment already had it. There is a firm however that does that kind of work. I saw an ad in the paper at some point. Why?"** she inquired

 **"As you might have seen this house doesn't have that. We can't heat the whole house with just fireplaces. That is kind of inefficient and takes a lot of wood"** Barry replied then continued **"I'll go check the internet and some of the local papers and see if I find anything. I'll be back in a bit"**. He left toward their bedroom leaving Kara and Alyssa alone in the kitchen.

 **"Just out of curiosity, you did tell us a while back that you had issues with finding a job. What you didn't tell us however is what your expertise is"** the blonde asked her guest that was visibly fidgeting.

 **"My main field of expertise is Virology. I have a secondary degree in immunology"** She said nonchalantly

 **"Wait, are you serious? How is it that you can't find a job in this city then?"** Kara looked at her quite puzzled

 **"There aren't any sorts of research facilities here. The jobs that I can get are not here and would require me to relocate. Mark is the chief of police here and he loves his job, if I would be required to move he would probably not be able to come with me. I can't stand being away from my kids and neither does he so … I decided to let it go"** the woman said with a sad voice.

 **"I see. Do you have any other acquaintances in the same situation? Or maybe friends? Fellow scientists that are in this city and are without a job because they don't have a firm which does research?"** The alien blonde decided to enquire further

 **"There are some, not many. Most of them already moved to other places since they weren't so tied to this place as me and Mark are"** the answer came.

 **"I see. Must be annoying to not be able to work and do something you love then, isn't it?"** The question came almost immediately

 **"It was, for a while, but I love Mark and I love our children. If that's what it takes to be with them, then it's a small price to pay"** she smiled back. Barry came down again

 **"I talked to one of the firms that take care of the heating. They can come over tomorrow and start work on the house. However there will have to be someone here that supervises them. Which means if we get a call from work, only one of us can actually go"** Barry told his fiancée.

 **"Actually no, Alyssa can take care of that since she's here anyway. Right?"** Kara looked at their guest.

 **"Sure, I'm in the house most of the time anyway. You have helped us a lot by letting us stay here, so if there is anything I can do in return, all you have to do is ask"** The woman replied sternly **"What do they have to do anyway?"** she asked.

 **"Holes, pipes, heating elements, the actual heating apparatus in the basement, stuff like that. They know how big the house is and they said that they should be finished in less than 4 days. Which would be good"** Barry replied.

 **"That sounds like they know what they're doing. I will be here to supervise the work, you two don't have to worry about anything"** the woman smiled. Kara received a message. Alex was calling them to the DEO with something rather urgent, so the two excused themselves, got dressed and sped out making sure that Alyssa didn't see the lightning trails they put out. They reached the main control room rather fast.

 **"We got your text. What's the matter?"** Kara looked at her sister with a rather surprised face.

 **"Look at this. This footage was pulled from a traffic camera in the city. Ever since I got the permission to keep the city under surveillance because of alien threats, my monitoring programs have been working around the clock"** Winn pointed at the screen. In the still image that was there, after a little digital magic performed by him, they could see a face. One that they had not seen in a very long time.

 **"Wait, is that Jeremiah?"** Kara looked at the picture

 **"That's what the face recognition software picked up. Ever since dad has been MIA, I kept looking for him. I all but lost hope thinking he was dead, but Winn agreed to put him on the wanted list anyway in case he popped up. The software gave us a heads up that it had found a person with 92% match on the facial features that Jeremiah has"** Alex replied, her voice being a bit shaky.

 **"Did you manage to get more that this? I mean sure a picture might prove that he is alive, still doesn't get us anything more than that. He could even be a clone of the original that was brought to light as a distraction"** Barry said quite surprised.

 **"Why would you say he's a clone. Did that happen in your timeline?"** Kara asked through their link

 **"Well, yes and no. Remember when I told you that he was found at a base which this world didn't have? In that base along with him we found a few vats and they were growing a clone of him. If they did that then, what would stop them from doing that now?"** Barry replied to her

 **"Nothing. So you might be right, our dad might indeed be dead and he might just be a clone to put us off track"** She realized and made quite a sad face.

 **"We should find out where he is, if we can. After that happens we will see if he's a clone or the real one. There is no reason to ask ourselves that question now. We don't have any sort of tissue that we can test"** Barry replied to her quite sternly.

 ** _"We'll deal with it when the time comes. Right now we need to see if we can find him"_** the blonde alien replied looking at her sister and then started to talk out loud **"Barry is right, as long as we only have a picture he could be anyone. Even a shape shifter. We need to see if we can track him and capture him"**

 **"I'm on it"** Winn replied starting to search though more footage trying to establish a pattern of movement for the man they saw

 **"Why would you even think of a clone, Barry?"** Alex was curious

 **"CADMUS has proved that they will used underhanded tactics to get at Supergirl and after you put a dent in their plan with Corben, it would be completely feasible that you are a target too. What better trap could they cook up except offer you your father on a platter, wait for you to come and rescue him and then kill you for meddling in their affairs?"** Barry made a fine point which was understood instantly by the DEO agent.

 **"Ah, you were thinking ahead. I never even considered that I might be targeted by CADMUS. But the way you put it now, it would seem logical"** Kara's sister acknowledged the speedster's worry.

 **"I would like to see my friend alive, but we have to consider that it might be a trap. We'll keep working on our end"** J`onn replied as he approached the others. He had heard the discussion and he was indeed happy that Jeremiah might not be dead

 **"All right, keep us in the loop if you find something more on him. We can change and go out in an instant to check the sightings if you manage to catch him in time and he doesn't disappear"** Barry replied and the others nodded. The couple sped out of the DEO going home, but they were stopped on the way by a call from Chief Singer.

 **"I need you two to get down to the precinct now. We caught something that might be right up your alley"** The voice came through the line

 **"We'll be right there"** Barry answered and closed the call as the two immediately changed direction and ran to the precinct. They went straight to the Chief who was waiting for them.

 **"It seems that Toyman is at it again. Somehow he escaped from prison and now wants money to not destroy the city. I thought maybe you can ask your super friends to investigate this. He said that he will blow up National City Hospital with everything in it if he doesn't get his money wired into an account by the end of the day"** Singer said with a really displeased look on his face.

 **"We'll get word to them right away, but maybe that would not be the best course of action"** Barry replied making the Chief look strangely at him

 **"If Toyman is nearby, then the two super heroes showing up might make him pull the switch and explode everything. Don't you think it would be better that we go incognito in the hospital and just scout around?"** Kara continued her fiancée's train of thinking

 **"That could be beneficial, but if he decided to blow up the building then you two would be caught up in the explosion yourselves. Are you sure you want to do that?"** the question came swiftly

 **"Yes, we have a better chance of finding out what he has planned like that rather than having the Flash and Superwoman involved right off the bat. Even if we don't give him the money, if we manage to pull out all the bombs from where they were planted and take them somewhere safe to explode then he cannot cause any damage"** Barry thought about it and replied.

 **"All right. You have my go ahead. Go check the hospital and see if his claims have any sort of validity. Don't be heroes, if you find any bombs just call in the bomb squad"** Singer told them with a stern tone

 **"The bomb squad might attract attention too. We'll see how we handle this. We have to be very discreet about it."** Kara replied. They exited the precinct and went straight to the hospital, presenting themselves and asking for access to every floor. They pulled an emergency about some escaped convict that might be in the building and they said that it needed to be take care of quietly. The hospital administrator was very forthcoming and offered them all the cooperation they needed.

 **"So how do we do this? It's a very large building that is full of people. We cannot use our powers which means this might take quite a while"** Kara looked at her fiancée.

 **"We go floor by floor, I'll look for things that are out of place and you scan everything with your vision. If we find something then we can restrict the area of the search. I would say just look out for killer toys, but we know that's not all Toyman is about. So unless we find something, we're going to be careful about everything"** Barry voiced in his head and she nodded. The two started with the roof and worked their way down through the floors.

They did not find anything for the longest while, but when they reached almost ground level, Kara started picking up things that were not supposed to be there. Most of the children had toys in their hands considering the first two floors, without the ground floor was a children's ward.

 **"This is going to be a pain in the ass. Everyone has toys here and it would make sense for the explosion to be on a lower level, since it can bring the whole place down on itself. We need to be careful"** She voiced

 **"Let's get to work, if there are just two floors left and quite a few hours till the end of the ultimatum, I think we can manage to get everything out. In an emergency we can just change and take everything out, people are already used to us working to keep them safe"** Barry added while he was checking the floor.

The two heroes started working and sweeping the two floors as fast as they could. However there was something wrong. None of the toys that the kids had seemed modified in any sort of way. Kara even scanned some twice to make sure they don't have small devices inside them, since the toys were large. Second floor was down, there was just the first floor and the ground floor.

 **"This is getting rather annoying. Could this be a simple trick to lure the Flash and Superwoman here?"** Barry asked her while he was looking around

 **"It might, but my necklace isn't detecting kryptonite so … if he wanted to set up a trap for me, I think he knows what I can do and without that rock to weaken me, there is little chance of success in whatever he wants to achieve here"** Kara replied while she was following him.

 **"I agree, without something to weaken you he just runs the chance of getting stopped and caught before implementing whatever plan he has. Let's keep searching for now. If we find nothing then we decide on another course of action"** Barry told her and she nodded.

The first floor was again filled with toys. Kara took the time to scan every one of them and came up with nothing. Barry found some things that were out of place and pointed them out to her only to be immediately disappointed when they were clean. The ground floor of the building was the same, nothing was out of the ordinary or out of place. The two had now lost almost 6 hours in scouring the building and came up with nothing.

 **"Barry, does this building have a basement?"** Kara asked out of the blue.

 ** _"It should have one, yes. I can't be sure though. Maybe we should go ask the hospital administrator"_** Barry thought. The two went and did precisely that, finding out that the building did indeed have a basement, but it had been unused for a couple of years and it was sealed off. Nobody could get down there since the only door that led to the space underneath the building had been locked and the only key was with him. They asked politely for the key since they had to check everywhere and the manager accommodated their wishes.

As they went down there, a foul smell of mold and stale water hit them, enough to make Kara hold her nose from it. She had dealt with dead bodies before and experienced way worse smells, but she didn't want to breathe in the foul air.

The basement was large, going under the whole building, it was dark and damp, some of the water pipes that ran thought it were visibly eaten by rust and some of them were even leaky. The humidity and rather hot environment promoted the mold growth. They decided to hug a wall and go around the room investigating as much as they could with the low light that their flashlights offered. In the west side of the basement they found a large hole that lead to the sewer system. It was obviously done recently and two devices that were planted on either end.

 ** _"What does this look like to you, Kara? It's definitely not kryptonite"_** Barry inquired as the Girl of Steel was checking out the two containers.

 **"I have no idea. They were definitely planted here by whoever made that hole, but what would be their purpose? They do not appear to be explosive devices of any kind, and the liquid they carry would not be enough to even stretch out across the large basement we were through"** She voiced. The two canisters were sealed so they could not take any sort of sample unless they broke them. The two decided to take them out of the building, but not before rebuilding the wall from the rubble and Kara using her heat vision to melt everything in place. They two decided to go back and report their findings to Singer while they had time. They took the two containers out of the city and left them in the middle of a testing ground for weapons for the military. They had no exercises scheduled for a few days as Winn informed them so the payload was safe. They took more precautions by camouflaging the two containers so that nobody could simply stumble on them and set them off and they set off for the precinct.

 **"Chief, there were two containers with liquids in the basement of the hospital. Our two heroes took them out to a military testing ground We didn't breach them to see what was inside, but it looked like either acid, or some sort of binary explosive"** Barry told the man

 **"That is about all we could get from such a cursory examination. Hopefully that will be enough to save the hospital. We couldn't find any other sort of involvement, any other devices or even bomb toys like he usually does"** Kara pitched in herself.

 **"I'm sending the bomb squad out there to keep an eye on the payload"** Singer tried to reply but was cut off by the speedster

 **"I would advise against that. The two containers were rather large and the force of the explosion could severely injure the people around. We'll have our people from the DEO keep an eye on the canisters via satellite. We'll tell you what happens"**

 **"Ok, Go talk to them and come back to me after the ultimatum has expired"** Singer agreed and the two left to the lab. They both changed into their costumes and flew out to the testing range. At the known time, as their displays showed them the two containers started to drip on one another, Barry used that chance to get some samples of the fluids that were coming out and stepped away just in time before a large explosion was heard leaving a crater in the testing ground. They went back and reported their findings to the captain, not mentioning that they had a sample of that fluid.

 **"Good work, you two. You managed to foil his plans again. Keep doing that and he might consider you his arch nemesis. Although he doesn't know that it was you who discovered the bomb"** Singer smiled

 **"I think he knows. He has a tactical mind and I'm pretty sure he was somewhere near to watch if the police would come to sweep the hospital. If they did, at the time he could just blow it and there would have been even more casualties"** Barry replied making the Chief think a bit and agree with him

 **"Time to go home them. I'll see you there?"** He inquired

 **"Yes, we need to take care of some things first and we'll go home as well"** Kara smiled and the two were out of his office speeding through the city. They got more food and some other necessities and sped home stopping short of the house in the wooded area so their guests wouldn't catch on.

The evening was quiet, they wanted to cook something, but Alyssa was already waiting for them with food. Nobody asked that of her, but she expressly said since the two were so gracious as to offer them a place to stay, she would do that as long as she had time. It had turned into an almost family dinner a few times per week when she had time. Another surprise that expected them was the fact that she was in the kitchen chatting with a very familiar face.

 **"Hello Cat, welcome to our little house"** Barry chuckled seeing the two women discuss stuff

 **"Ah, Barry, Kara. Thank you. I thought I would drop by to check the place out, I have never been inside here, even if I was neighbors with the people that owned it before"** She chuckled

 **"I see you`ve already met Alyssa. You two seem to get along just fine"** Kara smiled while sitting at the table

 **"Of course, why wouldn't we be?"** The media mogul smiled. While the three women were talking Barry called Caitlin.

 **"Evening, Caitlin. I was wondering, didn't you say that you wanted to start a microbiology section of STAR somewhere when you have time?"** He inquired

 **"Yes, but the majority of the people we want for that section don't want to move so it would mean that we would have to buy a building or construct something, for them to work"** Caitlin replied from the other side of the line.

 **"What people don't want to move and from where? Because I have someone here that might be perfect for the job, but she can't move either"** Kara added

 **"You have someone like that in National? That's interesting because we thought about doing that particular section there. Who is she?"** younger Barry asked

 **"Her name is Alyssa Singer. Does that name ring a bell?"** Old Barry spoke to his counterpart

 **"Yes, it does actually, she was one of the ones that couldn't move. I don't know why, but we did want her for the San Diego research facility, but that was the end of that. There are a few other scientists from National that didn't really want to move and they ended up working for perfume companies or other places where they couldn't continue their research"** Caitlin spoke her mind

 **"Alyssa is staying with us, she is the wife of the Chief of Police from National and their house blew up. We managed to buy a new one with … more rooms and offered them to stay with us"** Kara gave them some more information about the person they were talking about. She heard him talk and came back to see why would he had called the other couple.

 **"I see, that's why she couldn't move. Well, we wanted to buy a venue and make another STAR in National City anyway. Tell her she will be contacted when there is actually a space to work, if she wants to"** Caitlin immediately retorted.

 **"So you two bought a house, can I ask what kind?"** Young Barry snickered.

 **"We would like Cisco and Bette to come over and maybe do the same security system that you guys have on your houses. If you're ok with that, then you can just come see it. It's in the city and it's large. That's all I'm going to say about it"** Old Barry chuckled.

 **"Actually, how about you just send those two and we can properly celebrate it on Christmas. This time, we'll hold the party"** Kara quipped.

 **"That sounds like a plan, but you do realize there are a lot of people to bring over from Central if we plan to have the same family sized party that we always do"** Young Barry quipped from the other side

 **"It's fine, I can bring them here and take them home as well. That won't be much of an issue, besides, you two are like me, you can help you know"** Older Barry smiled and started to laugh

 **"Sure, we would like that. So who do we invite from the people here?"** Caitlin inquired

 **"Everyone who has been to your last party. But we will talk more. We'll let Alyssa know that you might be looking for her in the near future. Take care of yourselves and keep in touch"** Kara told the two speedsters

 **"Will do. Same applies to you"** Caitlin closed the line and the two went to sleep since it was pretty late, after spending a little more time with Cat, Alyssa and Mark, which had managed to come back from work. They were surprised how the two Allens would still be up at that hour, since they would sleep every chance they had and when they got some free time, because of Alex.

The next morning to the two went into the basement to clear out the area and found out it was pretty much all right. There were two room that they could see immediately. A closed room with an air vent to the outside and another one that looked much like a wine cellar. The rest of the basement was a large room. Kara scanned the foundation one more time to make sure it doesn't have problems and much to her surprise … she found something that was not in the house plans, just underneath the corner that held the circular staircase to the office above.

 **"Hey, there is something strange here. I'm seeing some sort of passage that's under our house. Or something like a natural cave formation. It's small, but I don't know where it would lead. I can't see that far"** Kara pointed at the ground in a corner of the large basement

 **"Well, we are on a cliff, sweetie. Having something like that underground is not unheard of. Strange nobody else saw that until now. I suspect there were studies made before building the house on something like that"** Barry replied to his fiancée

 **"It looks like something water would cut through the rock, although it is quite large now, from what I can ascertain about the entrance, it's at least 10 meters deep and looks like it could fit three people"** She voiced concentrating her vision to that precise spot.

 **"I think we might want to look at that. If that cave system has indeed an exit to the outside, I don't think it would take much for someone to actually come up from there and into our house. That would completely bypass all the security measures we want to have in place"** Barry was worried about what the girl of steel had seen.

 **"We'll check it out after the people install our central heating. I think I can dig down to that cave system to find out where it leads and if it has some sort of exit in a place that can be exploited from the outside"** Kara added her own thoughts to that of her future husband.

 **"That seems like a good idea. But for now, let's leave it like it is. There's no point starting dig sites in our own basement"** the speedster smiled at her and the two went back to their bedroom.

The next day the people that were installing the central heating came around and started work. The couple kept an eye on them, but Alyssa was with them most of the time, she took the kids to school and when she came back she was on top of things. Much to their surprise, Kara received a call from Clark later in the day.

 **"Hey, cousin. I was wondering, Isn't Jeremiah supposed to be dead? Or something to that effect?"** Kal inquired with a tone that betrayed his surprise

 **"Yes, he is. However, yesterday Winn pulled some footage of a camera of someone that looked like him. Ever since then we've been keeping an eye on the matter to see if we can catch the person again"** Kara replied

 **"Well, I saw someone today while I was going to work, here in Metropolis, which looked almost identical to the Jeremiah I knew. I tried to see if I could get closer, but he disappeared in the morning rush. I didn't manage to find him afterwards"** He replied with a bit of sadness in his voice

 **"I see, so now that person has gone to Metropolis. Thanks for the heads up. Since we can't go and look for him right away, I guess we will have to wait until he comes back to National, although, going from one side of the country to the other in one day is a bit suspicious. It's like he is trying to hide, but still go to cities where people that know me can still see him"** Kara thought out loud

 **"I know, it seems just a bit too obvious. Be careful, all of this might be a trap as far as I'm concerned. Take care of yourself and we'll talk later"** Kal told her and Barry, who was listening in, agreed with by nodding.

 **"I will. Thanks, Clark. I'll have Alex see if she can investigate this further"** Kara replied and closed the line. **"Wonder if this was just a coincidence, or Clark was supposed to see Jeremiah so that someone would go to Metropolis to find him"**

 **"I can't answer that, but if this was a CADMUS trap, I would want to get my hands on Alex so that I could blackmail you into doing what I want. It doesn't take a genius to come up with a simple plan. Of course, that would mean that they know who your other identity is, which is a bit disconcerting"** the speedster voiced his thought and she agreed with him.

The house was rather noisy because of all the people that were working so the two decided to go to the precinct and follow up on what Clark told them. They let Winn and Alex know as well, since they were the ones that were keeping an eye on the random appearances of the person who was thought to be Jeremiah.


	38. Holidays

Keeping busy with the fact that Jeremiah was sighted yet again, this time in Central City of all places, fact that they were alerted too by Barry and Caitlin, and having to deal with another bomb threat from the Toyman, who apparently needed money badly, the following week went by like a breeze. The two were almost always busy and not at home. Alyssa kept her promise and the people that were installing the central heating finished after four days, leaving some time for cleanup. The couple told her to not fret that they would do it themselves, and they would except they needed to be alone so they could take care of it at super speed.

The time came for the Singers to go back to their place, their apartment was done and they wanted to spend the holidays in their own home. Something that neither Barry nor Kara could fault them for. The parents had put everything in their car and were waiting outside for the children to bring their things. They were joined shortly by the two heroes.

 **"Must be nice going back to your own home after all this time, huh?"** Barry looked at them and smiled.

 **"Yes, it is. Although living in this large house had its benefits"** Alyssa voiced

 **"One piece of advice you two, when you have people in the house, I would suggest you don't speed around. Other people that are not as smart as we are might figure out your secret identities"** Mark chuckled leaving the couple quite shocked by his statement.

 **"Secret identities? What is that supposed to mean?"** Kara tried to change the subject.

 **"Like I said, try not to speed around the house that much. Even if you think no one can see you, you can never be sure. One of the kids saw lightning one night, he didn't make much of it, but we kind of did"** Singer told them with a serious face **"I would advise you get yourself a car as well. Even if you don't use it. Don't you think it rather strange that you live all the way out here and all you do is walk? Or in your case, speed around? You do have to keep appearances"**

 **"Hmm, never thought of that"** Barry smiled **"So how did you figure us out?"**

 **"A collection of things. The way you work at the precinct, for one. Remember that I have asked you on several occasions if you have super speed. Then it was the fact that you talked to the heroes like you knew them. You live all the way over here, but I always left before you and you were always downtown before me. Without a car. When the two heroes announced they were married, I considered it a bit weird, but not out of the ordinary. However, the thought did come to mind that it could just have been for a diversion. You two are about to get married. Again, that was just a suspicion. But when out youngest came to our room and asked to sleep with us because he was scared of the blue lightning that was in the house, you could say that everything clicked"** Mark smiled looking at the two who cringed, realizing that however careful they were, their speed was a part of their lives and they used it quite often.

 **"Don't worry. Your secret is safe with us"** Alyssa smiled

 **"I do reserve the possibility of calling you and asking that you help with your other personas. While you do work with the police, you don't handle everything. Some cases might require your … other type of expertise"** Singer looked at them

 **"We already do that, Mark. But sure, you can call us when you need to, just make sure nobody hears you"** Kara grinned.

 **"With that said, we should be off. There are things to do before Christmas and we should be getting back to them"** Alyssa told the couple that was standing in front of them

 **"If you got nothing else to do then you can come to our party. The one that we're holding for Christmas Eve. If you do come, however, I suggest you keep an open mind"** Barry told the Singers

 **"I'm guessing you two aren't the only superheroes that are going to be at that party?"** Mark inquired

 **"No, we aren't. Most of the people in that family that we plan to invite are superheroes in their own right. Of course, you will have to keep their secrets as well. If that seems a bit too much, then it might be better if you don't come, but the invitation still stands. The decision is yours"** Kara voiced her thoughts

 **"All right. We'll think about it. Thank you for the invite thought. Take care of yourselves and I'll see you at work"** Mark shook hands with Barry and hugged Kara

 **"Also, even if you do live in this mansion now, you know where we live. If you want to come over anytime just for chatting or for a visit, you`re always welcome in our house, just like you have welcomed us to yours"** Alyssa voiced her own invitation which was quietly approved by Mark via a nod.

 **"We might take you up on that. Take care of yourselves"** The Singers got in their car with the kids and drove off. Barry and Kara waving goodbye until they were out of sight and then going back into the house.

 **"I don't even remember when we sped in the house, however I think it's for the better that Mark knows now who we are"** the speedster went to the kitchen followed by his fiancée.

 **"Me neither, but since we use our speed so readily for some things and I can take energy from you unless you expressly don't want to, either you or me could have provoked that lightning in the house simply by speeding down. I do agree that having Singer know who we are is beneficial. Now we don't have to cover ourselves when it comes to him. He will cover for us, which will enable us to leave whenever there's an emergency without people asking questions"** she replied to him while they were sitting down for a cup of coffee.

 **"I think we should talk to Bette and Cisco. Maybe they have time to come and put the infrastructure in order until Christmas, what do you say?"** Barry questioned

 **"Yes. Let's talk to them, see if Barry and Caitlin don't need them and maybe get Felicity too since we will more than likely need a Tech wiz"** Kara replied and then remembered

 **"I'm fine doing it on my own, but seeing Felicity again would be nice. Sadly I don't think she can leave her posting at STAR West. However, it never hurts to ask"** the speedster concluded.

The two started making calls. They talked with Barry and Caitlin first. The two couples agreed that since now Barry and Kara had a large house, they could set up an offsite backup at their place too. Doing that would mean that by default the house would have the STAR security system and they would all have access. Bette and Cisco agreed right away to come to National and assess the situation. The Engineer had already back ordered a set of servers and nodes that would allow them to create another failover location, but the servers were in Central City in storage inside the labs.

 **"We can come get them and bring them here, if that is no problem. How many are there?"** Barry asked Cisco

 **"24. And the racks that they have to be put in. It can be done, the only problem would be that you will need to make multiple trips here and back"** the engineer replied.

 **"We'll help too. Come over, you two. Kara you can take Cisco and Bette, seeing that you`re a bit slower and by the time you arrive we should be there with the servers as well."** Caitlin told the blonde. They agreed and they sped over to Central City. The transport wasn't nearly as difficult as they thought. Barry made 3 times remnants, his younger self making another 3 and Caitlin another 3. They only needed two trips, and with Kara leeching energy off her Barry she was faster than she had ever been. Cisco and Bette were inside the house about the same time the others brought in the first batch of computers.

 **"Hey, you said you bought a house, not a mansion. What is this?"** Cisco quipped at them.

 **"Only thing that was near what we wanted. Look around, see if you can find a good place for what you need to do. There is also a basement, but I don't know how well electronics might fare in that environment"** Kara invited the engineer to look around. The speedsters were back with the second batch and everything else they needed. The last passenger was Felicity, who expressed her desire to come and help. Barry had taken a detour to Star City and brought her along as well.

 **"We need to go back"** Caitlin voiced **"We don't want to leave Alex alone for too long. But we will definitely be here for the party. If you have something akin to a nursery we can come and help if you need it as well"**

 **"We'll take care of that, since we do want you to come here even if it's for a few days so the little one has to have a place to sleep. We'll make two of them, just in case. If we need help we'll call but for now we have everything we need. Thank you for the help"** Kara smiled at her, leaving Barry speechless at the candor of her statements

 **"No problem. You`re welcome. In case there is something that we need your help with in Central we'll keep in touch"** Young Barry replied swiftly and the two were off. Felicity and Bette were walking around the house with Cisco looking for a place to set up the new failover cluster.

 **"This property doesn't seem as big as the vacation house. I'm going to do a walk around and see if there are any security issues. Call me if anything comes up, or just come get me, I'll be somewhere on the grounds"** Bette told the couple and went out

 **"We should leave Cisco to his devices for a bit and go in town to buy some stuff for the nursery. Both of them. If those two want to spend some time here, we have to make sure that Alex has a place to sleep"** Kara told her fiancée who nodded. The two sped out into the city and started to look in furniture shops for cribs and other stuff that they would need. They found some things that they really liked, instantly ordering them and having them delivered the same day to the house. Kara was right, they would need two of them, even if one would stay mostly empty. They ordered two of everything, two cribs, two playpens, a lot of toys and some other stuff. Barry and Kara loved Alex and they wanted to make sure the baby would not get bored while his parents were there. Surprisingly enough, when they came out of one such shot they met with Cat which was on her way to the usual break at the restaurant.

 **"Fancy meeting you here, so you finally decided to … grow your family?"** the media mogul looked at the two and gave them a grin.

 **"It's not for us, not now anyway. The Allens will be coming for Christmas so their child needs a place to sleep. I won't lie, we have thought about that, but a bit later"** Kara smiled at Cat who gave her a grin.

 **"Which reminds me, if you don't have anything else, we're holding a party for our friends and extended family. It would be nice if you'd be there. If Carter is home and not with his father, bring him too as well"** Barry told her

 **"Carter is indeed spending the holidays with his father, but yes, I'll be there. Who else is coming? Or … I'll see that when the time comes"** she inquired sheepishly

 **"You'll see. But expect the usual people that you saw that time when Barry proposed to me. Maybe some new additions, like Mark Singer and his family"** Kara answered her. Kat was surprised

 **"Chief Singer? I'm surprised you would invite him. Or…"** She didn't manage to finish her sentence.

 **"We have become close while he spent time in our house. Besides, he kind of figured out on his own who we are and his wife did too. He won't say anything, but we have become friends in that time, so it would be something normal to invite them to the party as well"** Kara explained

 **"Ah, so he did figure out who you two are. Well, that didn't take him long. That doesn't matter, I will indeed come over for Christmas Eve, it's not like I have to walk too much. You are my neighbors after all"** Cat started to chuckle.

 **"Great, we'll be expecting you then. Don't bother bringing anything, unless you have some nice wine for our guests"** Kara smiled.

 **"You two don't drink? I could have sworn I saw you take some wine yourself"** Cat told them surprised.

 **"We can't get drunk. Barry's metabolism burns through it at a stupid pace. He would have to drink like half a water tanker to feel anything. As for me, I could never get drunk because of my body. There isn't a strong enough alcohol to get me even tipsy, except some alien stuff that comes from my home planet. The rest, I guess they are just too weak. Yes, I have tried anything from Tequila, to even drinking pure alcohol. Doesn't work in the slightest"** Kara replied to the media mogul who looked at them with a sad face.

 **"Not even 30 yet and you can't get drunk. That's a bit shit, wouldn't you say?"** Cat chuckled

 **"Not really. Anyway, we have to get going, Cisco and Bette are at our house and putting up the security system and everything else connected to STAR in Central City. Which reminds me, come over tonight, we have to get Cisco to make you a security profile, or else you won't be able to come into our house at all"** Barry remembered that with the system in place, without a security profile nobody could get into their house.

 **"That's all right, I don't intend to drop by unannounced. Besides, I have no tie in with STAR. It would be strange that I have a security profile there. I'll manage and if me coming over and waiting at the door becomes a nuisance, then we can talk about that profile"** She smiled at the couple that agreed. They split up, Barry and Kara going back home to see what Cisco had managed to come up with in terms of where he would put the servers. After a bit of thinking, Cisco decided that the best place was the room that was in the basement.

 **"So that's where you want to put everything?"** Kara asked surprised **"Won't the humidity present a problem?"**

 **"Not so much no. I can have an air conditioning unit installed that will take care of the temperature and the humidity in the room. Also it is big enough for what we need without having to bump into the server racks. That's the place"** The engineer smiled

 **"Cisco is right"** Felicity agreed **"It's also pretty much shielded from extreme temperatures and heavy humidity from the outside. I do believe it is indeed the best location for the sort of tech we want to put in"**

 **"All right then, let's get to it. The internet connections in the house are already done. It seemed a bit surprising that people who apparently didn't have any sort of tech would make sure that the walls have cable outlets"** Kara quipped

 **"It might not even have been their design. They did redecorate right before they left, as the real estate agent had already told us, so maybe the one that did the redecorating thought to include something like this for the future. We will only have to make one small hole for the wires to be connected into the servers. I think you can do that with your heat vision"** Barry looked at his fiancée while they were setting up the room where the servers should be.

 **"Yeah, I'll do that now so we can clean up"** She replied and shot a high intensity heat beam straight up through the floor which melted a medium sized hole for the wires to go through. Cisco was prepared, Caitlin had dragged with her wiring on their last trip as well.

While Cisco and Felicity were busy setting up everything, with Barry giving them a hand at super speed wherever they might need it, Kara went up to the two rooms that the couple had picked in advance to be nurseries. She started to clean up and make space for the cribs they bought and everything else, which arrived an hour later. The shop was very helpful and when they heard where the buyers lived they scrambled instantly to get the merchandise there.

 **"I'm going to start bringing things into the nursery, if you aren't too busy, maybe you can give me a hand?"** Kara asked him mentally

 **"No, I'm never too busy for you, just tell me what you need put and where, I can do both things at once. Fastest man alive, remember?"** He chuckled and she started telling him where to put everything. While helping Cisco and Felicity, he would go up and take one more thing to the rooms. Bette came back and went straight to the basement helping the other two with the racks, while Barry had time to focus on setting up the nurseries with Kara. After a good couple of hours of work, both rooms were done and the server room was stacked with tech. everything was turned on. The two superheroes came down only to have Felicity ask one question

 **"So, you have the servers here, but you don't have any kind of consoles anywhere in the house. How am I supposed to set up the connection without another computer?"** She inquired looking at the two

 **"Oh, we didn't think of that, we don't have anything like that in the house. Maybe you have some workstations that we can have from STAR West?"** Kara thought ahead seeing that the Star City branch had the required tech.

 **"You`re in luck. I do have two consoles that are unused right now and they are in the storage room at STAR West gathering dust. They are made with the latest tech so they would work fine here. Barry, can you go get them?"** the blonde asked the speedster

 **"Yes, how many of me would there have to be to make this a one-time trip though?"** the question came

 **"Five. 4 to get the consoles and their main units and one to get the wires and everything else. The storage room has everything you just need to go get them. They're in the 32nd floor of the building in Star City"** The answer came and the speedster was off. Two minutes later, the consoles were brought in and put in the office of the main building where Felicity and Cisco started assembling them and configuring the security system along with Bette.

 **"There is one caveat"** Cisco told the two superheroes **"The system requires a satellite connection. Which means you will need an antenna yourselves somewhere on the grounds. I already ordered one and it will be shipped later, I don't think it would have been really polite to tell Kara to fly with the antenna here all the way from Central City"**

 **"I probably would have had done so if it was necessary, but thank you for thinking about me. If they deliver it to the house then we can take care of it ourselves. Barry knows how to fix that, don't you?"** She asked looking sheepishly at her speedster fiancée.

 **"I'll manage. No point in gathering everyone just for something like that. Once I do integrate the dish in the system, you can just login to it from STAR West and set the parameters for it to work, right?"** Barry asked the blonde

 **"Yes, I can do that without a problem. There, everything is tied into the STAR Network"** Felicity smiled at the two. Bette and Cisco were hard at work to put all the security measures around the house. It was getting late, everyone had worked pretty much all day so everyone picked a room and went to sleep. Barry and Kara went back up to their master bedroom and decided to take a bath before going to bed, however, it turned out to be anything but. They did manage to get out of the double tub and on the bed where they continued well into the night.

The next morning the two came out as usual and went to the kitchen to get some coffee and maybe see if anyone wanted breakfast. Much to their surprise, they found Felicity already there with bags under her eyes.

 **"Morning, Felicity. What's up with you, didn't sleep well?"** Kara asked surprised

 **"Not really, how could I? It seems that your bed is right above the room I chose to sleep in. You two are LOUD. The scratches that the posts made as the bed moved across the floor didn't do me any favors either"** the blonde looked at the two who immediately blushed and looked down at the floor **"Don't worry about it, I'm used to sleepless night from helping Ollie, just thought I should mention that so you don't do it with someone who's a stranger in the house"** she grinned.

 **"Sorry about that, we had no idea that it would keep you from sleeping"** Barry said

 **"It's not a problem. I'll get right back to work in setting up everything that needs to be set up. How about you two, don't you have something to do?"** She chuckled

 **"We're going to start Christmas shopping, it's going to be Christmas Eve in two days and we'd better be ready considering we want to throw a party. I would suggest you speak to Oliver and Thea so they know they are invited too and where to come. If you can send a message to the time patrol as well to be here"** Kara acknowledged

 **"All right, will do"** she responded

 **"Mind doing something else for me while you`re here?"** Barry inquired

 **"Sure, what do you need?"** the blonde woman responded

 **"Can you hack me an MD license? Might come in handy if we ever need a second opinion from someone who won't talk to anyone else, but a doctor. I have studied quite a lot and as Kara can tell you I know what I'm doing, except I don't really have the credentials for it"** the speedster told her what he needed.

 **"Yea, sure. I can do that. I'll have it ready in a few hours"** the blonde smiled at him

 **"Don't rush, I don't really need it right now, but it would be nice if I actually had one. Since I could use my knowledge and not worry that someone would ask me about why I am qualified to do so"** The reply came. Felicity nodded, grabbed a cup of coffee and strolled into the office where she started to tweak the link to the Labs, while creating a trail of credentials and studies for the speedster to get his medical license. Kara decided to call Clark and let him know about the party.

 **"Morning, cousin. You busy?"** her voice sounded quite happy

 **"Not so much, just planning what we want to do for the holidays with Lois"** the answer came

 **"Since our apartment blew up we had to buy a new house so, we thought it would be nice to throw a party for everyone. That's why I called, I assume you want to come too ?"** The alien blonde asked quite straight out

 **"I heard on the news what happened with your apartment, but I knew you were safe since the news about the two superheroes didn't stop. Sure, Lois and I will be there, all you have to do is give us the address and a time to get there, since you bought a new house I would much like to see it. I'll be surprised, won't I?"** Superman answered quite bluntly

 **"Oh yes, you'll definitely be surprised. If you want I can have Barry come and get you, if you don't enjoy flying in cold weather with a passenger in tow"** she replied.

 **"No, that's fine, we'll just take a plane like a normal couple. That won't be a problem. Lois seems to enjoy flying with me as much as she enjoys being on a plane"** Kal replied.

 **"Ok, the address is 1 Marshall Way. I would say, be around sometime around 5 to 5:30 Pm?"** Kara stated

 **"All right, we'll be there. See you in a few days"** the answer came and Clark closed the line.

 **"That should do it. What about the others, shouldn't we invite them ourselves, instead of leaving that job to Barry and Caitlin?"** Barry asked

 **"We already invited Felicity, which will talk to Oliver, his sister and the time patrol. Now all we have to do is speak to Alex and the people at the DEO"** Barry replied and took his phone to call her sister. She had been out of town for a few weeks on a secret mission that required her to go under cover and see if she can get more information regarding the dominators, however, someone in the organization she was infiltrating blew her cover and she had to be recalled before she was hurt, or even worse, compromised.

 **"Alex, we're throwing a little Christmas party for the whole family. It would be nice if you, Winn and J`onn could join us"** Barry started

 **"Of course we'll be there. How's it on the house front, did you manage to find something you like?"** the question came

 **"Oh, we did, I know you didn't manage to see if because you were away on that mission. Well, not would be a perfect time"** Kara quipped

 **"I'm in too"** Winn's voice could be heard from the other side of the line. The man was visibly excited to have been invited as well.

 **"Well you heard it, I'm pretty sure J`onn is coming too, although we will talk to him and if he decides to spend Christmas with Megan then we will let you know"** Alex retorted

 **"That's a good idea, you should tell him to bring Megan as well, since he is his family and he is a close friend. Kal is coming as well, Barry and Caitlin with the whole posse from Central City, Oliver with Thea and the time cops, Felicity, Cisco and Bette are already here"** Barry decided to give them the short version.

 **"Awesome. Everyone will be there. Anyone else?"** Winn asked

 **"Cat Grant and probably Chief Singer with his wife and kids"** Kara added.

 **"All right. Where are we supposed to go and be there at what time?"** Alex inquired

 **"The house we bought is at 1 Marshall Way. Party will probably start around 5 Pm, people will arrive a bit later since the plane from Metropolis doesn't get here until that time?"** Kara spoke into the phone

 **"Wait, did you just say 1 Marshall Way?"** Alex and Winn asked almost in tandem

 **"Yeah, what about it?"** Barry interjected into the conversation

 **"You two bought the house on top Monument Hill? I thought that was just for rich people. Wasn't the last asking price in 8 figures?"** Alex asked quite surprised

 **"Yes, that's what we paid for it. Did I forget to mention that I have enough money to last us a lifetime?"** Barry chuckled

 **"Yes, you kind of did. Anyway, we'll see you there"** the DEO agent replied

 **"Before we leave, did you manage to find out anything else about Jeremiah?"** Kara was hopeful, but she knew that it might be nothing.

 **"No, after being spotted in Central City it was like he dropped off the map. We're continuing to scan for his whereabouts. I'm assuming you gave Barry and Caitlin his description to keep an eye out for him as well?"** Alex inquired

 **"Yes, we have already given them that. Or else they wouldn't have detected him when he was in Central City. If he pops up in any city where STAR has access to the cameras we'll find him"** Kara replied.

 **"All right. See you at the party. Did you try to get a hold of mom?"** Alex asked her sister

 **"I did want to invite her, but I don't know where she is. I don't have time at the moment to fly all the way home to check on her. If you manage to reach her tell her that I would be very happy if she decides to join us"** Kara added.

 **"Will do . See you in a few days or as soon as there is some sort of alien emergency in the city"** her sister quipped from the other side of the line and the call was closed after. The two got dressed and went into the city to buy everything they needed for the party. The first thing that was needed was decorations. The two bought so many of them to be put throughout the whole house and some outside that they had to return to the mansion a few times to leave them somewhere. They didn't have enough hands to carry everything. This time Kara had a say in what they bought, something that was quite unusual, but she started to get the taste of the holiday with the person she loved and what she wanted.

The next step was the tree. As they strolled through the city one thing became glaringly obvious.

 **"They don't have large trees. We would need something quite big for the hall in our house"** Kara said with a bit of disappointment

 **"Of course they don't, most of the people in this city have moderate sized homes, not the mansion that we just bought. We just have to keep looking"** Barry told her and gave her a kiss. He didn't like the sad face she was making and that managed to put a smile back on it.

 ** _"You are correct. I guess we just have to keep looking"_** the answer came and with renewed determination to find a tree that was big enough for the house the two started to look anew. They were in luck, after a few good hours they stumbled on a merchant that had trees that were extremely large for a normal house, but just right for their own.

 **"Did we measure the height of that room, by any chance?"** Kara asked her fiancée who looked at her strangely

 **"No, we did not, but I did manage to see the plans for the house. Give me a minute to recall the building plans"** He stood and thought for a bit and then replied **"The room is 3 meters high, which means we can get a tree that is somewhere around that height. That is if we want to put it in the living room, if we want to put it in the atrium, where the stairs are, then that is about 6 meters and a half"**

 **"I don't want to put it in the atrium because we will have enough issues to decorate that and the tree might impede movement around the house. So three meters, all right, let's ask the vendor how tall the trees are, he probably measured them before bringing them here and we can make a decision after"** she quipped. They bought a tree that they liked, it was lush all around and stood around 2.5 meters in height, just perfect for the living room in their house. Now, they had to get it there

 **"I'm starting to think that Mark was right, we need a car or some sort. I don't think we can just walk around the city with this tree, its size makes it suspicious for two people to carry it so easily"** Kara thought to him and he nodded.

 **"For now, I guess we will just have to duck out in an alley and speed with it home making sure that we don't damage it. You run with it, I'll run beside you and extend the bubble so we don't wreck it all to hell"** he replied as they ducked into an alley and they started speeding toward the house. Barry made sure that the bubble was large enough to be able to keep the tree intact and Kara was syphoning off energy so she could run faster as well. She noticed that as she was syphoning part of his energy, her thought processes were sped up as well to be able to handle the speed. She started to perceive the world around her as standing almost still, kind of like Barry described it when he was using his powers, surprisingly, that happened when she didn't receive power from him, her own speed making sure that she could process the information she was receiving. She was sure that this was part of the shared force that the lightning strike had provoked back when they were struck. She didn't mind, usually her speed did nothing of the sort, only allowing her to see the world as a blur while she moved, just enough so she could dodge everything that came in her path, that's why, because she met Barry she enjoyed flying more instead of running.

The two reached home without incident and planted the large tree in the living room along with the large boxes of decoration they had bought before. Cisco, Bette and Felicity had finished what they needed to do and were taking a break from it all. Everything had been put into place including the fingerprint and iris scanners at the front door. The back doors had a smaller inconspicuous security system. Cisco prepared some fingerprint sensors in advance and worked them into the handles. That way the doors were always closed unless someone authorized wanted to open them. The shutters remained the same, only now they could be controlled directly via an app that Cisco constructed on the fly. They could set the schedules for them opening and closing, the voltage that was going through the metal, it also provided direct access to them if the couple would need to close them early.

 **"That is a beautiful tree you guys bought, but this house is huge, how much would it take for you to decorate it all?"** the blonde looked at the two who smirked.

 **"I have no idea, considering we cleaned the entire mansion in a bit under 7 hours, I think decorating will take way less than that"** Kara replied.

 **"Maybe it's time we called in reinforcements. What do you say?"** Barry looked at his fiancée with a large smile

 **"Well, of course, 4 speedsters would be faster than two, but those two have a child to take care of, we can do it by ourselves"** She replied reminding Barry that the Allens still could not be away from home for long periods of time if they did not take their child along for the ride.

 **"We do have two fully stocked nurseries now, but you`re right, let's get this decorating business started and we'll see what happens"** the speedster replied getting interrupted by Cisco

 **"Do you think we're going to just stand here and not do anything, you've got another thing coming. Me, Bette and Felicity will do the living room, you can take care of the rest of the house. If you finish ahead of us, which you might, you can come help us here. How's that?"** the engineer quipped

 **"That sounds like a plan to me. Let's do this!"** Kara grinned and the blue lightning started to move around the house putting up decorations. They started in the foyer which they finished in less than 30 minutes, continued with the hallways and the kitchen, the library and the upper floor hallways. Which pushed them back another hour. Last but not least they decided to decorate their bedroom as well, since they would be spending enough time there, possibility which when put forward by Barry, made Kara blush severely. That took yet another hour. Then they returned to the living room, Bette had put on Christmas music and the room was done, all they had to do was decorate the tree. Felicity was already on a chair doing that, but when they zipped in, she yelped and lost her footing, enough for her to almost fall from the chair she was on. Kara was fast and caught her before she hit the ground.

 **"Be careful, we don't want accidents happening. You falling on the floor and hitting your back after what happened to you would not be good"** She smiled while she put the blonde back on her feet with ease.

 **"I know, I just forgot what it like is to live with two speedsters. I have been spending time in Central City with the other two, but I was always sitting down so if I was indeed startled I couldn't fall off"** She excused herself

 **"Just be careful. Or I can lift you to put stuff higher up since I don't have a problem with lifting and I'm pretty sure you wouldn't fall from my grip"** Kara grinned looking at the slender blonde in front of her.

 **"I suggest we go and get some rest, we can continue the tree decorations tomorrow morning, before everyone arrives. It's already late and I know at least one person that didn't get much rest last night"** Barry looked at Felicity and grinned.

 **"That wasn't my fault, we had some people that were making a ruckus"** She smiled.

 **"Barry might be right, it's already rather late. We should leave this to tomorrow. Maybe there will be other people that will come to help"** Bette voiced sitting down in a chair taking a sip of eggnog. She knew the two were part of the **"we can't get drunk"** brigade, but she made some nonetheless for the others.

They agreed that it would be beneficial for them to rest after all the work they had put in the previous day and everyone went to their rooms. They already made sure that the big guest room was kept for Barry and Caitlin. The others would be up for grabs, Felicity got one for her and Oliver, Bette and Cisco took another one, while the couple went back to their own master bedroom.

The next morning as they woke up, they went straight to the kitchen and started making omelets and pancakes for everyone. Barry had to speed out to get syrup since they didn't think in advance that they would need it. In the meantime Kara had coffee at the ready and continued to make food. The kitchen was in a good spot to let the aroma of the coffee drift inside the house, just enough to wake up everyone. Their guests all came down to the kitchen and were greeted by a table full of food and coffee for which they were grateful as they started eating. Barry had come back just in time with the syrup as well, buying a few jugs which were going to be put in storage.

 **"Good morning, I see you`re looking better, Felicity"** Kara grinned at the blonde who had some pajamas on.

 **"Of course, there were not screeching or rapping noises to keep me up all night"** She retorted making the others laugh.

 **"So what's on the agenda for today?"** Bette asked while she was sitting in Cisco's lap drinking some coffee.

 **"We need to finish the tree, then we should probably cook some food for the party, since we have 3 speedsters and a baby that eat like beached whales"** Kara explained

 **"Not to mention an alien blonde that eats just about as much as those mentioned speedsters. How did that go? On thanksgiving we had a turkey for the family and a turkey for Kara?"** Barry started to laugh making the blonde start to fidget and blush

 **"How do you know about that?"** She retorted with a surprised look on her face

 **"Alex might have mentioned your eating habits back in my timeline. She wasn't the only one either, Eliza confirmed that as well"** Barry chuckled and broke down laughing. **"Which reminds me, did you invite her to the party?"**

 **"I tried to get a hold of her, but I didn't fly all the way back home to see if she was there. I told Alex to see if she can talk to Eliza and get her here in time for her to be at the event we're preparing"** Kara replied to her fiancée.

 **"I find it odd that I haven't managed to meet Eliza in this timeline. The other time this happened, it didn't even take a few months till you took me to meet her"** Barry looked at her crooked.

 **"Well, things have been tough on her, with Jeremiah disappearing and with everything that happened. I heard she took on a new job somewhere and left home. But that is as much as I know. I get why she wanted to get away for a while. After the disappearance, mom buried herself in her work and since she is a pretty well established scientist in the community, I doubt she had trouble finding a new job. She stayed home for a while, it hasn't been that long since I've seen her actually, I went back there a week before you came to this dimension, but since then Alex had gone to see her and she wasn't there anymore"** Kara replied with a bitter smile **"She will be back, now I just hope it will be in time to be at the wedding. That would be pretty shit if she doesn't even know about that"**

 **"Then we'll just have to track her down. With her science background there aren't many places that she could have gone to for a good job. One of them just happens to be owned by family, which will make it even easier for us to look for her. Don't worry, if we can't have Jeremiah walking you down the aisle at least we'll make sure that your mother is there"** Barry assured her and gave her a hug and a short kiss.

Much to their surprise, as they were decorating the tree and cooking at the same time, Alex and Winn made an appearance early. When they saw the two at the door with their faces frozen the couple started to laugh.

 **"Welcome, but how come you came so early?"** Kara was surprised to see them almost two hours before the actual party had to start

 **"We wanted to help, but I see you two have everything covered. This is some property you two have here"** Alex managed to talk

 **"Eh, it suits our needs. Come in, we were in the process of decorating the tree and cooking some food for whoever wants to eat"** Barry told them and smiled while he closed the door behind him.

 **"Mind if we look around? We want to see what this house has"** Winn told the sunny blonde that was heading back to the living area

 **"Not at all. Go look around, just make sure you don't get lost"** Barry chuckled and the two made wide eyes at the fact that the house was so large. Of course they realized that he was pulling their chain. After they moved around visiting everything that they could visit, the two came to the living area and started to help the others in decorating the tree.

 **"Just out of curiosity. We couldn't get into the rooms on the last floor. What's there?"** Alex asked as she was hanging some globes on the tree

 **"There are no rooms on the last floor, just one. The master bedroom, the one where me and Kara sleep"** Barry replied leaving the DEO agent with her jaw on the floor and Winn with a large smirk on his face.

 **"Wait, that whole floor is a bedroom? What the hell do you have in there?"** She asked quite surprised.

 **"Everything from a walking in closet, a large two person tub, a Jacuzzi, a large bed and several other things that need to be kept secret"** Kara grinned at her sister. Alex thought it strange that the sunny blonde wouldn't blush these days when she mentioned something of the sort. It must been the effect of actually living with Barry for such a long time and getting used to the sexual innuendos.

 **"The attic seems strange. Why would there be a glass dome under the actual roof?"** Winn asked

 **"You're going to see why. Maybe we'll get everyone up there at one point and show you. I can tell you this, there is a VERY good reason that there are two roofs, one made of glass and the normal one"** Barry left him to think and to imagine what those reasons might be.

As they finished with the preparations the time was nearing for the others to arrive. Cisco, Bette and Felicity were annoyed that they didn't bring any sort of clothes from their homes to attend the event, thing that was immediately rectified by Barry who took them back to their respective cities and left them to get ready. After 30 minutes, the three were back in the house in full evening attire. Barry and Kara went up to their room and dressed themselves for the occasions. He chose a dark blue suit with tie and she dawned a red dress which was molded to her form and had a large cut down the back and to the sides. They came back down in a nick of time to answer the bell. The Singers were at the door accompanied by Cat.

 **"Hello everyone, Come in. Welcome to our humble abode"** Barry cracked a smile

 **"Mark, Cat, Alyssa. Did you two not bring the children?"** Kara looked strangely at the Chief and his wife and two faces popped up from behind them **"There we go"** she smiled as everyone came inside and joined the ones that were already in the living room.

The next group was way larger and contained a pretty hefty surprise. The next bell brought with it the gang from Central City. Barry and Caitlin along with Alex, Iris and Eddie, Henry and Tina and Joe who was alone, his girlfriend could not make it due to some late work she had to get done.

 **"We have a surprise for you, Kara"** Caitlin quipped and the group split to make way to a figure she knew very well.

 **"Mom? But … how are you here?"** She asked surprised

 **"Funny story, a while back we hired someone. The person didn't seem too special at the time until we shook hands and she gave me the flashes you two are so familiar with. It turned out that since I have his memories"** young Barry pointed at the older version **"I knew immediately who she was. Eliza has been working at STAR in Central city for quite a while now. We kind of figured you would be glad to see her, so we brought her along"**

 **"Hello, Kara. I had no idea that in the time that I was gone you managed to actually meet someone that stood up to your high standards"** Eliza gave her a smile and a large hug.

 **"I'm so glad to see you, mom"** Kara was trying hard not to cry, she wasn't wearing much make up but she didn't want that ruined. The others slowly started to go inside as Kara and Eliza remained locked in a hug outside. Old Barry went and told Alex to go outside, leaving the three to their own devices. They had not seen each other in a long while.

 **"So, no more reporting for CatCo. Now you`re a detective at the NCPD and you found the man of your dreams huh?"** Eliza looked at the sunny blonde while she was hugging Alex who was very glad to see her.

 **"A lot has happened in the past year and a half, mom. Yes, what you said is perfectly true, I did find the man of my dreams. Someone which I am going to marry very soon"** she pointed at the large ring on her finger, making Eliza gawk.

 **"Not to mention that man is filthy rich and his brother and his wife own STAR Labs. Which you have already seen"** Alex added fuel to the fire making Eliza gawk even more.

 **"I'm glad you have someone to make you happy. I think Jeremiah would be proud of how much you've grown these past years."** Eliza replied looking at her two daughters. They continued to speak until they heard a car coming. It contained Clark and Lois which made it just in time, they took a cab as soon as their plane landed.

 **"It's been a while, Eliza. Hello Kara, Alex"** Clark smiled and took the old scientist into a hug after that going to his cousin.

 **"What is with the Allen Family and mansions?"** Lois quipped starting to laugh after she said that.

 **"That's what you get when your apartment blows up and you have nowhere else to stay"** Kara replied as Eliza's face fell once again **" Come inside, there are other people you would like to meet"** The three went inside where the two versions of Barry, Caitlin and Cisco were talking.

 **"Did you manage to get a hold of Harry and Our two junior speedsters?"** Old Barry asked Cisco

 **"Yes, I did. Caitlin remembered to bring my glasses and gauntlets so I'll open a portal for them to come through"** the engineer smiled and put on his gear. A large swiveling portal appeared in the living room out of which, Harry, Jesse and Wally came out. It was immediately visible the fact that Jesse had a large engagement ring on her finger. While Cisco did that, Young Barry got a call from Oliver.

 **"What is it Ollie, are you going to be late?"** He asked surprised

 **"Late for the party? No chance. But we kind of took the Wave Rider Express so, we will need a place to land close to the house"** He replied

 **"Land in the back yard, there is a lot of space where the ship can stay cloaked and nobody would be the wiser. The doors that lead there are already keyed in to the STAR Labs security systems which means you can come in without a problem"** Kara added so that the archer would know what it was.

 **"All right, Thank you, Kara. We'll be there momentarily. We were hovering outside. See you in a bit"** He chuckled and closed the line. After a few minutes, from the back doors that were leading to the living room a few people came inside. Oliver, Sara and Talia, Ray and Thea, Professor Stein with his wife and Jax, with a surprising addition. Zatanna.

 **"Oh, you invited Zatanna as well, I had no idea you knew her that well"** Kara looked at Caitlin

 **"We did. She did help us out a lot whenever magic was involved, so we thought she should be here with the gang. You don't mind, right?"** Young Barry asked the couple that was hosting the party

 **"Not at all. Glad to see new people that we have to meet. Just out of curiosity, who is that person that Sara brought along?"** Old Barry inquired

 **"That is Talia Al Ghul. The second daughter of the Demon that Oliver killed. She helped us on a few league matter and then, she met Sara and I think those two fell for each other. I couldn't tell you anything more, you would have to ask them yourselves"** Caitlin replied to the question quite swiftly. The last people that showed up were J`onn and Megan. Alex told him it would be no problem if they both come, he was family and she was his family, it was completely normal that they both got an invite, which they honored. Everyone who had to come already was in the house, it was like Mother Nature thought it would be nice to give them a show, large snowflakes started to come down in a beautiful, yet calm snowfall. Both versions of Barry along with their significant others were talking to Oliver and Felicity. They left their guests to do introductions amongst themselves as everyone knew everyone and who didn't was always welcome to ask.

 **"If this continued next year we'll have to buy a mansion and hold the Christmas party at our place"** Felicity looked sheepishly at the older speedster.

 **"Why does everyone think we just wanted to show off with this house? We didn't, it wasn't even on our radar. This is what was available and with our apartment bombed, it seemed necessary that we don't live under the National City Bridge"** Barry looked at the blonde who started giggling.

 **"You didn't live under a bridge. You were more than welcome to spend more time at my place"** Cat chimed into the conversation approaching the group that was talking.

 **"Hello, Cat. We still didn't manage to get together to give you a proper interview"** Caitlin quipped

 **"It's all right, I figured out that you two must have a lot on your plate, especially since Kara told me you have a newborn. The interview can wait, I don't mind. As long as another publication doesn't get it either"** the media mogul winked and the two speedster started to chuckle.

 **"They won't. Unless I don't know, Clark wants an interview or something"** Young Barry started to laugh. Hearing his name, the reporter decided to join the group along with his, now, fiancée.

 **"I heard that"** He quipped

 **"Yeah, you were eaves dropping. Not like it's hard when you have super hearing"** Kara looked at him crooked.

 **"Kara …"** the man backed down realizing what she had said

 **"Don't worry, ever since I found out who these two were, I realized who you were too. As well as these two here"** she pointed towards Younger Barry and Caitlin " Your secrets are safe with me" Cat gave him a winning smile and he immediately stopped being defensive.

 **"The first thing she did when she figured it out was admonish herself for sending Superman explicit texts, you had to be there because it was hilarious, her face started to change into all the shades red that you could possibly think of"** Old Barry put things into context.

 **"Explicit texts? You never told me about anything like that, Clark"** Lois quipped from the sidelines making the reporter backtrack

 **"Eh, it was nothing to worry about, Cat always had a good eye for … ahem … talent"** Kara added and they all started to laugh.

 **"I still haven't figured out who the Mayor of Star City plays in this superhero parade that I have before me, thought"** the media mogul added. Nobody said anything, leaving Oliver the chance to keep his mouth shut about his secret identity, if he didn't trust her enough. Much to their surprise, he didn't. It seemed that if the others trusted her enough, he had no reason to keep his identity a secret.

 **"I'm the one that Star City calls the Green Arrow. Mayor by day, hero by night, with little sleep in between"** he said bitterly **"That is why my sister takes care of most of the mayoral duties, something that I am really thankful for, or else I wouldn't have time to even get some old fashioned shut eye"** Oliver said in his usual voice

 **"Ah, that makes sense. Most of the people here I already know. Except the ones that came in from the back yard. Who are they?"** Cat asked with a surprised face

 **"See that person over there?"** Caitlin pointed toward Sara **"That is the sister of the late Laurel Lance, and one of Oliver's exes"** The archer gave her the stink eye immediately **"I suggest you go talk to her, she can explain everything way better than we can"** Cat nodded and she went toward the couple that were talking with Joe. Henry saw a chance and came over with Tina to enter the discussions

 **"So, the other child I'm not supposed to have got himself a house. Or better said, a mansion"** He quipped looking at the others that were around him

 **"Hey, dad. Well, we needed a large house, especially since my beautiful Kara here said that she wants to have 15 kids"** Old Barry looked at the doctor whose eyes went wide. That same reaction could be seen on everyone's face including that of Clark, who wanted to say something, but was immediately stopped by the alien blonde

 **"He's joking, yes I did say that, except it was in jest. He teases me about that every chance he gets"** she replied but her face was red already. Caitlin started to laugh seeing the nuance change, followed by her Barry and Lois

 **"Do you at least have someone who can handle a pregnancy in your part? I don't even think I have any sort of data on how Kryptonian pregnancies work"** Clark said with a serious face.

 **"It's all right, I can take care of her. Ever since I got the OBGYN license, and had a not so normal baby with my own wife, I can handle the issues that might come when Kara gets pregnant. With Menace's speed, he can be in Central City with her in less than a few minutes. So don't worry about anything related to that, Clark. She will be very well taken care of. Heck, if we have to move here for the last few months to keep a constant eye on her progress, we'll do it"** Young Barry voiced and Caitlin instantly nodded. Kal saw immediately that she had people around her that wanted her to remain healthy and they would go to great lengths to make sure she as well as the baby were all right.

 **"I can see that now. Thanks for thinking about what would happen"** He voiced. He realized then and there that he didn't even have to thank them at all, they had thought about Kara way before he started to worry about his cousin.

 **"Of course we would think about that in advance. We started to do that ever since Caitlin was pregnant herself. These two are blind as a bat when it comes to how much they want a family of their own, so we had to … push them in the right direction with a few directed talks"** Young Barry managed to explain why. The two that were the subject of the conversation started to blush, but this time it went away rather fast. They had already thought about having kids nonetheless. Clark and Lois went to speak themselves a bit with the time cops. Wally and Jesse approached them followed by Harry who was visibly happy to be here, unlike other times.

 **"How are things on earth two?"** Caitlin asked them as they approached.

 **"Nothing worth noting, we have had sighting of a fake Harrison Wells. Someone who had drumsticks and wore a weird hat. We managed to get a picture of him off the security tapes at the labs after that whole debacle with Grodd. But what about you? We had a small window where nothing would work, and we come here and realize that the dimension from which Kara came is now part of your own. Must be nice having a slew of super friends at one push of a speed dial, huh?"** Jesse spoke

 **"You`re on a push of a speed dial too. Even if we still need Cisco to open the breaches for you to come through, the breach generators still work, which means that you are also in that category of super Friends. But enough about that. What about this?"** Caitlin took Jesse's hand and pointed at the large ring that was on her finger.

 **"Long story short? I asked her to marry me. Nothing that surprising"** Wally joked which landed him a slap on the back by Harry

 **"We thought that might happen, ever since you came to our wedding, we just didn't know how much it would take"** Caitlin voice making Kara chuckle.

 **"So when are you getting married?"** Felicity asked

 **"We don't know yet. In a few months more than likely. Jesse is like Caitlin in that regard, since we spend so much time together anyway, the actual marriage is something that either of us rarely think about"** Wally smiled remembering how Felicity told him that Caitlin barely remembered she had her wedding in three weeks and had done nothing about it.

 **"We might just run off to Vegas and get married there and hold a party for you people, just so we have our friends meet up on earth 2 for a change"** Jesse smiled. At that statement Caitlin and Young Barry started to laugh heartily

 **"That is what we wanted to do, initially. But then we thought, why not. You only get married once in your life, if you're extremely lucky about it. I know I was"** the young speedster told the group

 **"Congratulations nonetheless. Wedding or no wedding, we'll be there to celebrate whenever you want us to"** Oliver added from the sidelines while he was discussing something with Cisco and Bette.

 **"That question however comes right back to you two . Did you decide when you are getting married? Because I see quite clearly the large rock on Kara's finger"** Harry reminded them that they had their own ceremony to plan

 **"No we didn't. We'll let you know in advance of course, through Cisco. Since you three are invited anyway"** Old Barry replied and saw the trio smirk in response. They knew that they were invited and he didn't have to tell them that, since they were family, but he did it anyway. Jesse and Wally made themselves scarce and Harry went to speak with Tina and Professor Stein. The scientist trio became quite close after the others brought them together and they would always share ideas and things that would help the world with each other. Usually, Tina would be the one to put them to good use, since Martin was almost always gone with the Time Patrol and Harry was from another earth, but the exchange of information was always beneficial. As the group continued to walk amongst themselves Sara and Talia along with Ray and Thea joined the conversation.

 **"I guess some things don't change even in alternate timelines"** Old Barry chuckled seeing her with the daughter of the Demon. The two women raised an eyebrow at his retort **"In my timeline, Alex, Kara's sister had you for a partner, Sara. Don't ask me how that came to pass because it's a long story and we don't have a week to go through all that"**

 **"Hello, Talia. Nice to see you again. How's the league doing?"** young Barry asked the lady in front of him.

 **"Good, considering you were good enough not to kill them all. Nyssa is planning to disband the league and everyone will more than likely go solo after that. She might even come to National City, since she has some stakes in some of the companies here"** the woman responded with candor

 **"Ah, she decided to go into business with the wealth of the former Demon?"** Oliver asked making sure what he heard was the right thing

 **"She has always done business with that wealth, something that you have and keep under a mattress does not generate the income that the league would need to keep itself viable, from an economic standpoint. She had invested in a few ventures here and there. Mostly here in National City and in Central"** Talia went a bit more into detail about her sister's dealings.

 **"Maybe we should introduce her to your sister then"** Young Barry chuckled at Kara, following a conclusion he drew from what his older self had said earlier.

 **"Actually, Nyssa has been keeping an eye on Alex for a while. She didn't tell me why, nor did I want to know. I had no clue until she told me that she even knew the person existed. So actually getting them to meet would be a good idea. I can't give you more besides that. My sister is pretty private when it comes to her own life outside the league"** Talia completed her explanation

 **"Well, you know where we live now. Extend an invite to your sister to come visit whenever she wants. I would like to meet her, she seems like a really interesting person"** Kara quipped

 **"I will do so as soon as I can talk to her. What about you two? Did you have any more problems with the league?"** The woman asked the speedster couple

 **"Not since you came to us. Someone did attempt something at one point, but the evidence wasn't enough to point specifically at the league. Besides that, nothing interesting. It seems like your warning worked wonders"** Caitlin answered her question.

 **"What about you, Ray? How goes it with the running through time?"** Kara inquired the man who was holding Thea like he hadn't seen her in a few years.

 **"It's becoming harder and harder to do something like that when you have someone who waits for you at home. Even though she came with us on a few … missions. I can't wait until we can take care of the Doom Patrol and I can finally settle down and restart working and be with her"** He responded nonchalantly and Thea kissed him.

 **"I do have enough to do, since I have to take care of Ollie's mayoral duties, but I do miss this big lug. Probably less than he misses me. Since they skip through time, the fact that I see him every few days when they return doesn't mean anything. He could have been gone a year or more doing missions. That's why I treasure every moment I manage to get with him when he is at home"** Thea voiced her own worries.

 **"When you do finally stop playing time cop, you have your own place at STAR West, so you can just take up science again"** Felicity smiled at him and the two Allens nodded. He knew this already, but a confirmation was always good.

 **"Yeah, for now, Eobard, Darhk and Malcolm are giving us enough trouble. They keep trying to screw with the time stream and we're the only ones that can stop them. Until that happens we will continue to put right what they did wrong, until we can finally come home"** Ray smiled at the group.

Older Barry picked up a glass of wine, Kara did the same as well as Young Barry and Caitlin as they were moving to the center of the room.

 **"Merry Christmas everyone. We're glad that you could join us at what can only be called a house warming party with friends and family. Since most of the other holidays were spent in their penthouse"** Kara pointed at Barry and Caitlin **" We thought this year should be different. We're glad you could be here with us and hopefully this won't be the last time"**

 **"Since this has become more like a tradition, we will more than likely continue it along the years, either here or in Central City. May the passing of the years see us like we are now, gathered here to celebrate instead of trying to battle some unknown enemy. To you, our extended family and friends, Welcome to our home"** Old Barry raised a glass

 **"TO family and friends, may we gather to celebrate more than we do to fight others"** Young Barry raised his glass

 **"To Family and friends"** The echo sounded all throughout the dining hall as the others shared their sentiments.

The party continued well into the morning, everyone mostly talking and enjoying themselves. There was food and drinks, but the people that were there didn't come for that. They danced, they spoke with each other, some sharing ideas, others just keeping up with what the others were doing. For some it was a long time since they had seen each other, for others was not. But the gathering of this extended family of super heroes was something that was going to be done for a long time to come. When everything ended, it was almost sun up. The ones that had apartments in the city went home, the ones that were from earth two went home as well to rest. Everyone else picked a room and went to sleep leaving Barry and Kara to return to their large bedroom with some wine and go out the balcony to look at the sunrise.

 **"We did it. Our own house, our own family gathered and in the end, just me and you and the sun. I don't think there's a better end to this day. Except maybe the cold, which is to be expected since it's winter"** Barry smiled shivering a bit

 ** _"How about I warm you up then"_** Kara grinned and kissed him. The two remained outside almost impervious to the cold and the snowflakes that kept falling from the sky, kissing until the sun came up. They went inside, but not before realizing that there was a large portion of snow that was floating. The Wave Rider was cloaked so the eerie sight of a large portion of snow floating seemingly in the middle of nowhere while under it there was green grass made the two laugh. They were happy and nothing at this point in time could possibly change that.


End file.
